Investigative Committee calls second June 9 Moscow car blast “attempted killing of research and production worker” without naming target

A June 9 car explosion on Vvedensky Street in Moscow — the second blast to have occurred on that day — was an “attempted assassination” of an employee of one of the city’s “research and production enterprises,” according to a statement by Russia’s Investigative Committee, cited by the Interfax news agency.

According to the investigators, two minors, a boy and a girl, allegedly placed the bomb on instructions from unidentified “handlers.” The girl retrieved an explosive device from a dead drop, while the boy attached it to the car along with a GPS tracker.

Both suspects were detained at the scene, and criminal cases were opened against them on charges of attempted murder and the illegal possession of explosives.

The Investigative Committee did not identify the alleged target of the planned attack. In its news release, the agency described the person only as “an employee of one of the research and production enterprises.” The explosion occurred in a parking lot at the intersection of Vvedensky and Butlerov streets in Moscow’s southern Konkovo District.

The closest institution to that location is the M.F. Stelmakh Polyus Research Institute, which specializes in laser technology. Its developments are also used in the military sphere, including laser target designators and rangefinders for Orion drones, as well as navigation systems and laser gyroscopes for Iskander missiles.

The institute is part of the Shvabe holding of the state defense corporation Rostec.

Also on June 9, a BMW X3 exploded in Balashikha, a city just outside Moscow, killing Lt. Gen. Damir Davydov, the Russian Defense Ministry officer responsible for supplying missiles and artillery ammunition to the front. He was the second Russian general assassinated in that neighborhood in just over a year. On April 25, 2025, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the Russian General Staff, was killed in a car bombing 350 meters away from where Davydov’s BMW detonated yesterday.