Moscow Hit by Another Car Bomb After Wave of Attacks - Newsweek
Investigators in Russia have launched an attempted murder investigation after a car driven by a former Ukrainian political aide exploded on a Moscow road.
Sergei Zavorotny, a 72-year-old journalist, was seriously injured in the blast, the latest in a string of car bomb attacks in Russia in recent months.
Fridayβs blast comes a day after a car bomb killed a Russian officer in St. Petersburg who was a colonel in the Russian Aerospace Forces.
The Toyota SUV that Zavorotny was driving blew up in the Chertanovo district in the south of the capital, according to Russian media which showed images of the burned-out vehicle.
The Russian Telegram channel SHOT reported that he had survived the blast but sustained shrapnel wounds to his chest and back, as well as severe injuries to his legs.
SHOT said preliminary information suggested that an improvised explosive device (IED) had been planted under the driver's seat and detonated minutes after the vehicle pulled out from a courtyard on Kirovogradskaya Street.
Telegram channels said that witnesses saw the driver lying on the asphalt next to the car where he got help from passersby before being taken to hospital.
Investigators were treating the blast as attempted murder and suspected possible involvement by Ukrainian intelligence services, Kommersant reported. However, the newspaper said this might be reclassified to a terrorism probe.
Kommersant also reported that Zavorotny lost an arm and suffered serious injuries to his legs.
Zavorotny was a correspondent for the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda and between 2003 and 2004, headed the press service of the Rodina party faction in the Russian Parliament.
He then became an aide to the Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, who served as the head of the government in Kyiv between 2010 and 2014.
His stint with Azarov coincided with the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Kremlin head of state who was ousted in 2014 following street protests known as the Maidan Revolution.
He moved to Russia where he was accused of pushing pro-Kremlin and anti-Western views.
In a 2023 report by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee called Zavorotny an employee of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and claimed that he participated in "influence operations."
Fridayβs incident is the latest in a spate of other car bomb attacks on figures often linked to Russiaβs military and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow has accused Ukrainian intelligence services of carrying out other car bomb attacks. Kyiv does not usually comment on claims of attacks outside its territory.
Russian media reported that the chief navigator of the Sixth Air and Air Defense Army died when the car he was driving exploded in St. Petersburg at 7 a.m. Thursday.
He was named by Ukrainian media as Dmitry Lobodin, although this has not been independently confirmed. Russian authorities have opened a murder investigation.
Also in Russiaβs second city, Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Sechkov, 43, from Russia's Aerospace Forces, was killed in a car bomb explosion on August 27.
On June 9, Damir Davydov, who was responsible for supplying missiles and artillery ammunition for the Russian Ministry of Defense, was killed in a car bombing in Moscow.
Near the same part of the capital, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in April 2025, in a car bomb explosion.
