Car owned by Russian serviceman with same name as top military officer is blown up in Moscow – photos

The Astra Telegram channel has reported that a Toyota Land Cruiser was blown up near a residential building on Sinyavinskaya Street in northern Moscow on the morning of 24 July. Later, Russian media reported that a car belonging to a namesake of Andrei Torgashov, the Deputy Head of the Defence Ministry's Satellite Communications Department, had been blown up.

Source: Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency TASS; Russian state-controlled television network RT; Astra Telegram channel; Baza Telegram channel; Russia media outlet Kommersant

Details: Astra claimed the vehicle belonged to Andrei Torgashov, Deputy Head of the Radio Transmission Centre for Military Unit 33790 in Moscow Oblast. According to open sources, Military Unit 33790 is the 89th Satellite Communications Centre of the Russian Armed Forces.

It was reported that the explosion occurred as a man and a woman were getting into a parked car. Early reports indicated that the man’s feet had been blown off and the woman had sustained shrapnel injuries. Both were hospitalised.

RT later reported that Torgashov himself told them he learned about the explosion in what was supposedly his car while he was at work. The deputy head of the satellite communications unit stated that he had absolutely no connection to the incident, and that he "never had a Land Cruiser and probably never will." "I don’t even live in that area. I live somewhere else entirely," he said.

The Telegram channel Baza reports that at the time of the explosion, the car was occupied by a namesake of Torgashov with the same first and last name. He is not connected to the military unit but also serves in the Russian Armed Forces.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that the serviceman served in Russian Military Intelligence (GRU) and was responsible for communications within his unit. The publication claims that a theory being considered in connection with the victim's identity involves actions by Ukrainian intelligence services and their agents. According to the publication, the case has been investigated as attempted murder, and it may later be reclassified as a terrorist attack.

Russian Investigative Committee head Aleksandr Bastrykin has instructed that the case be put under the control of the agency’s central office.

This news has been updated since publication.

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