He attack on war correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky opened a new chapter of the war in Europe. Amid cross accusations, Russia assured that it was a “terrorist act” against the influencer who defended the actions of Vladimir Putin. He also arrested Daria Trepovathe main suspect who admitted having moved the statuette and who remained under the scrutiny of the Russian government for having militated against the offensive in Ukraine on several occasions.
The attack against the journalist from Donbas, the epicenter of the war, occurred on Sunday, April 2, at a party event in the Russian city of St. Petersburg. Tatarski, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, received a box with a statuette that turned out to have explosives and, when detonated, cost him his life and injured 33 other people, some seriously. Its magnitude was such that even the United Nations (UN) expressed its “concern” and demanded clarification of the fact.
Monday the Research Committee of Russia described the episode as a terrorist action that was “planned and organized from Ukrainian territory” and blamed Russian opposition organizations that respond to Alexei Navalny, Putin’s detractor considered a political prisoner. However, this was denied by the president himself. Volodímir Zelenski.
The attack is reminiscent of the one carried out in August last year against Daria Dugin, defender of the offensive in Ukraine and daughter of Russian ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin. Russia then accused kyiv, which denied having participated in the assassination.
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Daria Trépova, the one arrested for the attack in Saint Petersburg
The Russian investigation institution questioned Daria Trépova, the woman of Russian nationality targeted as responsible for the attack against the military blogger who was arrested on Monday. According to the state news agency Tass, she had already been arrested for ten days in 2022 for demonstrating against the Russian offensive.
Video: Sputnik
The woman was captured by security cameras entering the scene with the explosive device. According to the investigation, she is seen delivering the package to Tatarsky during the conference and she sat next to her. After the explosion, it is presumed that she went to the apartment of a friend of her husband where she cut her hair, steps that she would carry out prior to her departure from the country scheduled for this Monday.
After being arrested, the 26-year-old woman admitted to having delivered the box with the statuette but denied any knowledge of its explosive contents. This is seen in a video released by the Russian police that shows Trépova handcuffed to a pipe, without specifying the location but does not indicate that it is a police station. In the pictures, the woman admitted to having carried the statuette but refused to give more information about it.
The Russian accusations and the Ukrainian denial
According to the Russian government, the attack “It was planned by the Ukrainian special services, which recruited agents among those who collaborate with the so-called Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation”, the Kremlin said in a statement according to the Sputnik agency. Meanwhile, Trépova was presented by the Russian anti-terrorism committee as a “active supporter” of that organization, banned in Russia since 2021.
It responds to the opponent of Vladimir Putin, Navalny, considered a politically persecuted and accused of extremism who was imprisoned two years ago after being sentenced to nine years in prison for fraud.” Alexei will soon be tried for extremism, he faces 35 years (in jail). And the Kremlin said, It’s great to be able to add an accusation of ‘terrorism’the organization’s spokeswoman tweeted. Count Yarmish, to respond to the Kremlin’s accusations.
To this was added the rejection of the ukrainian president Volodímir Zelenski, who toned down the accusation by assuring that he is “too busy worrying about his country to pay attention to the attack in Russia.” kyiv’s position was also endorsed by an official of the Ukrainian presidency, Mijaíl Podoliakwho denied any involvement on Twitter.
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Who is Vladlén Tatarsky, the pro-Putin influencer who died in the attack
The war correspondent Vladlén Tatarsky died Sunday in an explosion in the cafeteria Street Food Bar from Saint Petersburg, where he was officiating a conference of an organization in support of the Russian offensive in Ukraine known as “Cyber Z Front”.
The 40-year-old man was a military commander of the donbas, the region of eastern Ukraine and the epicenter of the war. From his place, he became a war correspondent and narrated what he lived through to his more than 560 thousand subscribers from Telegram. His original name was Maxim Fomin, he hailed from the pro-Russian Donetsk region and came from a family of coal miners. His pseudonym, meanwhile, was taken from a novel by the popular Russian author Víktor Pelevin.
Amid the political upheaval of pro-Russian protests in Ukraine in 2014, Tatarski joined his home region’s People’s Militia, a pro-Russian pro-independence force against the Kiev government’s actions to settle separatist ambitions. He then continued his military career in the Vitiaz regiment and in the 4th Lugansk Brigade until 2019 when he left the service and settled in Moscow. Three years later, Russia invaded the Ukraine and Tatarski returned to Donbas to work as a war correspondent.
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