Russian blogger Vladlen Tatarsky killed in blast after ‘woman handed him exploding statuette’
It is not yet known for certain if Vladlen Tatarsky was deliberately targeted in the explosion in Russia’s second-largest city, which also wounded at least 30 people. But reports say he was “handed an exploding statuette”.
Michael Drummond
Foreign news reporter @MikeRDrummond
Monday 3 April 2023 04:28, UK
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Explosion in Russian cafe kills prominent military blogger
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A pro-war Russian military blogger has been killed in an explosion at a cafe in St Petersburg, the Russian interior ministry has said.
Vladlen Tatarsky died and at least 30 people were wounded in the blast, as he was leading a discussion at the cafe on Sunday.
Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, had more than 560,000 followers on Telegram and was one of the most prominent of the influential military bloggers who have provided an often critical running commentary on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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There has been no confirmation of who was responsible for the destruction at the Street Food Bar No 1 cafe in Russia’s second-largest city.
A St Petersburg website said the cafe had at one time belonged to Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group – the private army that is fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
A leading Russian official pointed the finger of blame at Ukraine, without providing evidence. The claim was rebuffed by Kyiv.
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Russia’s foreign ministry made no accusations of involvement in the attack, but said silence in Western capitals exposed hypocrisy over expressions of concern for journalists.
Russian police officers stand at the side of an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, April 2, 2023. An explosion tore through a cafe in the Russian city of St. Petersburg on Sunday, and preliminary reports suggested a prominent military blogger was killed and more than a dozen people were injured. Russian news reports said blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed and 15 people were hurt in the explosion at the “Street Bar” cafe in Russia's second largest city. (AP Photo)
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Russian police officers at the scene of the blast. Pic: AP
Russian investigators and police officers stand at the side of an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, April 2, 2023. An explosion tore through a cafe in the Russian city of St. Petersburg on Sunday, and preliminary reports suggested a prominent military blogger was killed and more than a dozen people were injured. Russian news reports said blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed and 15 people were hurt in the explosion at the “Street Bar” cafe in Russia's second largest city. (AP Photo)
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Pic: AP
Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, blamed Russian domestic terrorism for the blast.
“The spiders are eating each other in a jar,” he added.
Russian media and military bloggers said Tatarsky was meeting with members of the public and that a woman presented him with a statuette that apparently exploded.
In remarks recorded on video, a witness said that a woman who identified herself as Nastya asked questions and exchanged remarks with Tatarsky.
The witness, Alisa Smotrova, quoted Nastya as saying she had made a bust of the blogger but that guards asked her to leave it at the door, suspecting it could be a bomb.
Nastya and Tatarsky joked and laughed. She then went to the door, grabbed the bust and presented it to Tatarsky.
He reportedly put the bust on a nearby table, and the explosion followed. Smotrova described people running in panic, some hurt by shattered glass and covered in blood.
A well-known Russian military blogger, Vladlen Tatarsky, is seen in this undated social media picture obtained by Reuters on April 2, 2023. Telegram @Vladlentatarskybooks/via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.
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Vladlen Tatarsky died in the blast
‘At this point nothing is certain’
If Tatarsky was deliberately targeted it would be the second assassination on Russian soil of a figure associated with the war in Ukraine.
Darya Dugina, the daughter of a Vladimir Putin ally, was killed last August after a suspected explosive device detonated on the Toyota Land Cruiser she was travelling in.
Tatarsky was among hundreds of attendees at a lavish Kremlin ceremony last September to proclaim Russia’s annexation of four partly occupied regions of Ukraine.
“We’ll defeat everyone, we’ll kill everyone, we’ll rob everyone we need to. Everything will be as we like it,” he was shown saying in a video clip on that occasion.
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Russian Emergency Situations Ministry stand at the side of an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, April 2, 2023. An explosion tore through a cafe in the Russian city of St. Petersburg on Sunday, and preliminary reports suggested a prominent military blogger was killed and more than a dozen people were injured. Russian news reports said blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed and 15 people were hurt in the explosion at the "Street Bar" cafe in Russia's second largest city. (AP Phot7:53
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Christo Grozev of the investigative website Bellingcat takes a look at who might have been responsible for the blast
Military analyst Sean Bell told Sky News that it “looks really unlikely” that the Ukrainian military was behind the St Petersburg attack as it wasn’t a military target.
Fellow pro-war Russian bloggers have paid tribute to Tatarsky.
“He was in the hottest spots of the special military operation and he always came out alive. But the war found him in a Petersburg cafe,” said Semyon Pegov, who blogs under the name War Gonzo.
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