Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky died in an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg on Sunday in an explosion that wounded more than 30 other people. Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin, was speaking before a group of supporters at the event. According to news reports, the explosives were hidden in a golden statue of himself that a young woman dropped off shortly before the blast.
In a video filmed by an audience member and shared to Telegram, Tatarsky is standing in front of a gigantic photo of himself framed by AK-47s and other assault weapons. He opens a cardboard box and pulls out a golden statue of a little Tatarsky decked out in military gear.“Oh, what a handsome guy! Is that me?” Tatarsky said after opening the box. “It’s golden!”
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Tatarsky had more than 500,000 followers on Telegram and was aggressively pro-Kremlin. “We will defeat everyone, kill everyone, rob everyone, just as we like,” he said in a video released after Putin illegally annexed the eastern parts of Ukraine. When Tatarsky posted from the frontlines, he did so fully armed and frequently posted photos of himself in warzones firing his weapons. Two days before his death, he posted footage purportedly showing Wagner mercenaries torturing a Georgian soldier.
Russia has already arrested a suspect in the bombing, a 26 year old woman named Darya Trepova. Authorities released a video of an interview with Trepova where she confesses. “I would say it’s for my presence at the scene of the murder of Vladlen Tatarsky,” she said when asked if she understood why she was arrested. “I brought the statuette there that then exploded.”
Russia’s National Antiterrorism Committee (NAC) claimed it had evidence that the assassination was a plot by both Ukrainian special forces and jailed Russian politician Alexei Navalny. Ivan Zhdanov, a Navalny associate, denied the accusation on Telegram. “The situation is pretty idiotic: denying our involvement is idiocy. Of course, we do not do such things,” he said. The NAC had not presented any evidence to back its claims.
When journalists asked Zelenskyy about the attack, he told them he had bigger things to worry about. “I don’t think about what is happening in St. Petersburg or Moscow. Russia should think about this. I am thinking about our country,” he said.
