(Moscow) The Russian authorities announced on Monday the arrest of a young woman, the main suspect in the attack which killed the day before a famous military blogger and fervent supporter of the offensive against Ukraine.
Investigators “arrested Daria Trepova, suspected of participating in the explosion at the Saint Petersburg cafe” on Sunday, the Investigative Committee of Russia, the powerful investigation office, said on Telegram.
On Sunday, blogger known as Vladlen Tatarsky (real name Maxim Fomin) was killed in a bomb attack at a St Petersburg cafe where he was speaking at a conference organized by an organization supporting the offensive in Ukraine, called “Cyber Z Front”.
The cafe itself belonged to the leader of the Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin. The latter indicated on Monday morning on Telegram that he had entrusted the restaurant in question to the “Cyber Z Front”.
According to numerous media, including the state agency Tass, Daria Trepova is suspected of having brought to the conference a bomb camouflaged in a statuette, which was given to the blogger.
According to a latest report, 32 people were injured in the explosion, eight of whom are in serious condition.
The arrested young woman is 26 years old. According to Tass, she was detained for 10 days in 2022 for protesting the Russian assault on Ukraine on its first day.
The man killed by the blast was 40 years old and born in Donbass, eastern Ukraine. Vladlen Tatarsky was a well-known figure in the military blogosphere in Russia, with more than half a million subscribers on his Telegram channel.
He has developed his community on Telegram, in particular by publishing, since the start of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, videos of analysis of the situation on the ground and advice for those mobilized, according to the news agency. Cup.
He said he supported Russia’s intervention in its Ukrainian neighbor.
According to media reports, before becoming a blogger, Mr. Fomin had been incarcerated in Ukraine for a robbery in 2011.
In 2014, taking advantage of the clashes during the war started in eastern Ukraine by separatists led by Moscow, he escaped from prison and joined the ranks of these fighters.
In 2019, he left the armed forces of the separatists in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, according to Russian daily Kommersant, to make a name for himself as a blogger.
He was best known after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his offensive against Ukraine, blogging and filming from the front.
The blogger shocked last September when, at a reception in the Kremlin, he said in front of the camera: “We will defeat everyone, we will kill everyone, we will rob everyone we need, everything will be as we like”.