A Russian blogger and propagandist who called for the destruction of Ukraine has been killed in a blast in a cafe in central St Petersburg, Russia's interior ministry said in a statement. Vladlen Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, was one of the nation's most influential military bloggers and had more than 560,000 Telegram subscribers.
A video has emerged that captures the moment the pro-Putin cheerleader was handed a statuette of himself by an unidentified woman just minutes before he was blown to pieces at the political event in the cafe. The statuette was believed to contain the explosive that killed Tatarsky.
Killed In Front of His Admirers
Tatarsky, a vocal supporter of the conflict in Ukraine, was assassinated when he was leading a discussion at a cafe on the Neva River's bank in the city's historic center. At least 25 attendees were hurt by the explosion, with four in critical condition. There were about 100 people present at the café at the time of the explosion.
Mash, a Telegram channel with links to Russian law enforcement, shared a video that appeared to show Tatarsky receiving a statue of a helmeted soldier while holding a microphone.
It claimed the explosion took place a short while later. Social media videos depict the explosion and the injured on the street.
The event's organizers, a patriotic Russian group, claimed to have taken security measures but recognized that they "were insufficient."
No group has taken the responsibility for the death, which could be the second political assassination of a pro-Putin Russian on Russian soil since the war began,
Analysts in the country have hypothesized that the Ukrainian secret service was responsible for the incident.
The statuette, described by Russian media as a gold-colored representation of Tatarskiy and containing 200g of TNT, was presented to him by a woman, although it is not known if she knew what was inside.
A witness who spoke on camera claimed that Tatarsky was engaged in conversation with a woman who introduced herself as Nastya and asked her questions.
According to a witness Alisa Smotrova, who quoted Nastya, the guards instructed her to leave the bust of the blogger at the door because they thought it might be a bomb. Tatarsky and Nastya laughed and joked. Following that, she went to the door, retrieved the bust, and gave it to Tatarsky.
According to reports, the explosion took place shortly after Tatarsky put the bust on a nearby table. Smotrova described people running in a panic, some bleeding and injured from broken glass.
Mysterious Death
Russian media reported that authorities were looking at the bust as a potential source of the bomb despite not ruling out the likelihood that an explosive device was installed in the cafe prior to the incident.
According to the Russian news source Interfax, a lady from St. Petersburg was detained on suspicion of taking part in the bombing. It stated that she had previously been imprisoned for attending anti-war demonstrations.
Although no one openly took responsibility for the bombing, military bloggers and patriotic commentators instantly blamed Ukraine and compared it to the shooting of nationalist TV pundit Darya Dugina last August. An explosive device hidden in her SUV blew up, killing her, as she was traveling on the outskirts of Moscow.
A top Ukrainian government official cast the explosion that killed Tatarsky as part of internal turmoil. "Spiders are eating each other in a jar," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted. "Question of when domestic terrorism would become an instrument of internal political fight was a matter of time."
Tatarsky was present when Vladimir Putin announced Russia's annexation of four partially occupied regions of Ukraine at a Kremlin event in September of last year. The decision was roundly denounced by the international community.
"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 recorded at the ceremony.
Tatarsky was born in the Donbas, the industrial center of Ukraine. He started his career as a coal miner before beginning a furniture company. However, when he ran into a financial crisis, he made the decision to rob a bank and received a prison sentence.
In 2014, he escaped from jail, weeks after Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine, a separatist uprising supported by Russia engulfed the Donbas.
Tatarsky then joined separatist rebel forces and engaged in combat before turning to blogging. He quickly gained notoriety for his bombastic speeches and impassioned pro-war sentiments.
"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 recorded at the ceremony.
