Three people died and five were injured on Wednesday morning when at least three vehicles were involved in an accident in central Moscow, police said.
The crash happened at 6:30 (02:30 GMT) on a northern section of the Garden Ring road.
“One of the vehicles burst into flames,” the spokesman said.
Traffic police said the Mercedes vehicle thought to have caused the crash had no number plate.
Around 100 people die every day on Russia’s roads, the most dangerous in Europe, according to statistics.
Four people – two adults and two children – were killed later on Wednsday in a crash in central Russia’s Saratov region.