New Delhi: A day after prominent Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in an explosion in a St. Petersburg cafe, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation — the country’s top investigating agency — detained an anti-war campaigner, Darya Trepova, for her alleged involvement in the blast, according to a BBC report.
The committee had initiated a probe into the blast after describing the incident as a “high-profile murder”. The Russian authorities have also alleged the attack “was organised by Ukrainian special services with people cooperating with opposition leader Alexei Navalny”.
On Sunday, Tatarsky was leading a discussion at an event organised by Cyber Front Z, which has been described as one of the covert, unofficial networks promoting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Videos circulating across social media show the blogger accepting a figurine, which — according to several Russian news agencies — was embedded with a bomb that exploded moments later, injuring at least 30 people.
Vladlen Tatarsky’s real name was Maxim Yurievich Fomin, and he was known to be a prominent supporter of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He had over 571,000 followers on Telegram — an instant messaging service. He was once convicted of bank robbery. Known to be pro-Putin, he became a Russian citizen 2 years ago.
Meanwhile, according to reports, the Russian Interior Ministry released a video of Trepova while tied to a radiator, confessing that she handed Tatarsky the statue containing the explosives. However, her partner Dmitry Rylov maintains that she had been “set up”.
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Was born in Ukraine
Tatarsky, 40, was born in Donbas in Ukraine, according to news agency Associated Press (AP). He worked as a coal miner and later started his own furniture business. After running into financial difficulties, he robbed a bank but was convicted and sent to prison. However, in 2014 — during Russia’s annexation of Crimea — he fled from custody, according to the AP report.
Joining Russian-backed separatist rebels, he fought on the frontlines and soon began publishing videos analysing Russia’s military situation on the ground and offering advice for mobilising troops.
In 2021, he obtained Russian citizenship.
In October last year, sharing a video on his Telegram channel, he reportedly said, “What are Ukrainians? I suddenly understood it. A Ukrainian is a Russian who got mentally sick… A Ukrainian is a Russian spiritual transvestite who is trying to squeeze into another skin.”
He also attended a ceremony organised by Russian President Vladimir Putin to mark the annexation of four Ukrainian regions — Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk — in September last year, where he called for “killing all Ukrainans”.
“We’ll conquer everyone, we’ll kill everyone, we’ll loot whoever we need to, and everything will be just as we like it,” Tatarsky said in a video message at the ceremony, according to reports.
Despite supporting the invasion, Tatarsky was also the loudest critic of the country’s defence ministry.
Known for his controversial comments, last year, Tatarsky had called for a tribunal for the Russian military leadership for failing to make substantial military gains in Ukraine. He called Moscow’s top officers “untrained idiots”.
Politics over Tatarsky’s death
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Tatarsky was “dangerous” for Ukraine “but bravely went on until the end, fulfilling his duty”.
Tatarsky was also known to be aligned with Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin. The cafe where the blast took place Sunday — Street Food Bar No 1, near the River Neva — was previously owned by Prigozhin, Russian news site Fontanka reported.
The Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary organisation, is currently involved in the Russian efforts to capture the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. According to the UK Ministry of Defence, the group commands up to 50,000 fighters in Ukraine.
While the Russian government blamed Ukraine for Sunday’s incident, Prigozhin said that he would not “blame the Kyiv regime” for Tatarsky’s death and suggested that “a group of radicals not related to the government” were responsible rather than Ukrainian agents, states a report in the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) — a US research group and think tank.
Tatarsky is the second influential pro-Putin commentator to have been killed since the Russia-Ukraine war began.
In August last year, Darya Dugina, a 29-year-old Russian journalist, daughter of Russian writer and political philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, was killed after her car exploded.
While Russia’s Federal Security Service had blamed Ukraine for the incident and Ukraine denied responsibility, US intelligence agencies also concluded that the Ukrainian government authorised the attack, The New York Times reported.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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