3 April: A Russian woman who opposed the war in Ukraine has been arrested for allegedly killing a famous war blogger with a bomb in a St Petersburg cafe on Sunday.
The blogger, Maxim Fomin, who used the pseudonym Vladlen Tatarsky, was a vocal supporter of Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine and had fought there himself. He had over 500,000 followers on Telegram, where he posted nationalist propaganda and criticism of Russia’s war strategy.
He was killed by an explosion that injured more than 30 people at a cafe where he was hosting an event. According to the state news agency TASS, the suspect, Darya Trepova, had previously been detained for anti-war protests and may have given him a statue containing explosives as a gift.
Trepova, 26, was reportedly found hiding in a friend’s apartment in St Petersburg and was planning to escape to Uzbekistan. She is now facing charges of terrorism and murder.
The assassination of Tatarsky is seen by some as a sign that the violence related to the conflict in Ukraine is spilling over into Russia. Nationalist politicians and commentators have blamed Ukraine for the attack and called for revenge.
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“Those details were not verified right away.
Trepova was on a wanted list by the interior ministry earlier that day. According to court records that TASS reported, she was arrested on Feb. 24 last year, the same day that Russia invaded Ukraine, for participating in an anti-war protest that the authorities considered illegal.
Without any evidence, Russian politicians blamed Ukraine’s intelligence services for Tatarsky’s murder on Sunday night. Ukraine did not admit to the killing – instead, a presidential adviser from Ukraine accused it of being “domestic terrorism”.
Darya Dugina, whose father is a prominent Russian nationalist thinker, died in a car bomb explosion near Moscow last summer that Russia accused Kyiv of. Ukraine denied any involvement.
Last month, Russia’s FSB security service said it had prevented a car bomb attack supported by Ukraine on a well-known nationalist businessman who has been a supporter of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Margarita Simonyan, the chief editor of state media outlet RT, expressed her satisfaction with Trepova’s arrest on Monday, saying it had prevented what she called “a national disgrace”.
Simonyan, like other aggressive commentators, made it clear on Telegram that she wanted Russia to retaliate strongly against whoever had killed Tatarsky. “Well well. Are we going to forget and forgive this?” she asked mockingly.”