Moscow: A military blogger was killed in an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia. The incident happened at 6.13 pm local time on Sunday. Vladlen Tatarsky (40), a strong supporter of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was killed. His real name is Maxim Fomin.
A figurine that Vladlen got from the cafe explodes. Daria Trepova (26) was arrested by the investigating officers in the incident. A video has emerged in which she admits to the police that she gave this statue to Vladlen. However, they did not say whether they knew that the explosive device had been placed on the statue and who was behind it. 24 people were injured in the blast. Six of them are in critical condition.
Vladlen was a guest at a private event at the cafe. Earlier, footage of Daria arriving at the cafe with a cardboard box containing the statue emerged. It is also said that they were planning to go to Georgia via Turkey following the explosion. Daria has been arrested before for participating in anti-war protests.
Russia’s Anti-Terrorism Committee has accused Ukraine’s special services of being behind the blasts, with agents linked to opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The allegations were denied by Ukraine and Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation.
Mykhailo Podolaik, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Vladlen’s death was the result of infighting within Russia’s domestic politics.
Navalny, a staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was poisoned in August 2020. It was alleged that Russia’s security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), was behind it. Navalny, who survived the poisoning and received treatment in Germany, returned to Russia in January 2021 but was jailed on corruption charges.
At the same time, the cafe where the blast happened was previously owned by Yevgeny Prigosh, the head of Russia’s private paramilitary outfit, the Wagner Group. Prigozhin expressed his condolences on Vladlen’s death. Vladlen is the most prominent person to have been killed in mysterious circumstances in Russia since Daria Dugina, 29, the daughter of Alexander Dugin, a close supporter of Putin and an ultra-nationalist political philosopher, was killed in a car bomb in Moscow in August.
Vladlen Tatarsky
Vladlen Tatarsky is not a Russian soldier or officer. He has more than 5,00,000 followers on Telegram. A blogger, he was active in activities supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He was born in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, and has a criminal background. He served a prison sentence for armed robbery and was released in 2014 by pro-Russian rebels who took control of Donetsk. Then he became part of the rebels. He has even criticized Putin for his dissatisfaction with the Russian military’s backlash in Ukraine. He has also been involved in fighting with Russia in eastern Ukraine.