Pro-Putin propagandist blown up in cafe explosion after being 'given model of himself packed with TNT'
3 April 2023, 07:56 | Updated: 3 April 2023, 08:50
A pro-Russia propagandist died yesterday after he was blown up in an ‘assassination’ after being handed a statuette of himself believed to have been packed with 200g of TNT.
Vladlen Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin, was killed on Sunday in St Petersburg in a bomb blast that left 30 other people injured.
Tatarsky was given the statuette by an unnamed woman, not long before the blast at a political event being held at the Street Food Bar No 1 cafe in St Petersburg.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack but Russia has accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of plotting it himself.
Around 100 people were at the event. Thirty were hurt in the blast with four in critical condition.
Video showing the moment Daria Teprova, planting the bomb in a cafe in St Petersburg which killed over a dozen civilians including Vladen Tatarsky. She’s currently in custody and being questioned over terrorism charges pic.twitter.com/H18XSsWnAH
— LogKa (@LogKa11) April 2, 2023
Video footage posted on Russian messaging app channels showed the aftermath of the explosion with tables and chairs broken and spattered with blood and shards of glass and debris strewn across the floor.
Tatarsky was killed just minutes after being handed the statue - a gold-coloured effigy of himself.
‼️In St. Petersburg, propagandist and military correspondent Tatarsky died after an explosion in Prigozhin’s cafe.
— Maria Drutska 🇺🇦 (@maria_drutska) April 2, 2023
According to russian media:
• an explosion in a cafe Street bar, where, previously, there was a “creative evening” of Tatarsky;
• a girl carried the bomb to a… pic.twitter.com/yixwlqu0SX
A murder investigation has been opened but analysts suspect it was an attack carried out by the Ukrainian secret service.
Russian media said investigators are looking at the bust as the possible source of the blast but have not ruled out the possibility that an explosive device was planted in the cafe.
Tatarsky was an outspoken Kremlin supporter and blogger.
Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that a woman named Darya Tryopova, from St Petersburg, was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the bombing.
Russian authorities work on site in aftermath of St Petersburg blast
Russia's Tass news agency said Tatarsky, using various pseudonyms, had been filing text and video reports from Ukraine as well as from the Kremlin.
CCTV captured the moment the 200g explosive device detonated at the "Street Bar" café, with a fireball lighting up the venue - and a shockwave sending shards of glass blasting into the street.
Tatarsky was one of Russia's foremost military bloggers with over 560,000 followers on Telegram.
Tatarsky's death appears to be the second assassination on Russian soil of a figure closely associated with the war in Ukraine.
Russia's Federal Security Service accused Ukraine's secret services last August of killing Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist, in a car bomb attack near Moscow. Ukraine denied any involvement.
