Explainer
Who is Daria Trepova? The 26-year-old suspect accused of killing Russian war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in cafe bombing
Russian officials say the 26-year-old, who is accused of killing military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a bomb blast in St Petersburg on Sunday, is an “active supporter” of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption group.
Monday 3 April 2023 13:35, UK
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Daria Trepova
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Daria Trepova
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The woman arrested over the death of military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky is a 26-year-old who has previously been detained for taking part in anti-war rallies, Russian officials have said.
Russia’s Investigative Committee – the country’s top state criminal investigation agency – says it arrested Daria Trepova over the death of the 40-year-old pro-war blogger, who was killed in a blast at a St Petersburg cafe on Sunday.
Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, was one of the most prominent of Russia’s influential military bloggers, who had provided a running commentary on its invasion of Ukraine. He had more than 560,000 followers on Telegram.
Russia’s interior ministry had put Trepova on the wanted list on Monday following Sunday’s blast. She is said to have been detained at a property in St Petersburg.
Trepova is, according to Russian counter-terror officials, an “active supporter” of the Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation, also known as ACF or FBK.
Daria Trepova
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Daria Trepova
The non-profit group, which has investigated corruption among high-ranking Russian officials, was founded by opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Navalny, who was poisoned with novichok nerve agent in 2020, an attack he accused Vladimir Putin of being responsible for, is currently serving a jail sentence in Russia for alleged fraud and contempt of court.
The group has previously been declared a “foreign agent” and banned in Russia, but continues to operate outside the country.
Counter-terror officials in Russia have declared the incident a terror attack, which they claim was planned by Ukrainian special services and involved “collaborators” from the Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation.
Darya Trepova, suspected of bringing explosives to the cafe where war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky (real name Maxim Fomin) was killed in an explosion the day before, speaks on camera during her arrest in Saint-Petersburg
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The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs has released a video of Daria Trepova which appears to show a confession. The circumstances under which the filming was done is not known
However, Trepova’s husband, Dmitry Rylov, told the Russian news site SVTV News that while his wife was against the war in Ukraine, “she would never kill”.
“I believe my wife was framed. I’m pretty sure she would never have been able to do something like that on her own,” he said.
Rylov, who is a member of the fringe opposition group, Libertarian Party of Russia (LPR), said: “Together with Daria we really do not support the war in Ukraine, but we believe that such actions are unacceptable.
“I am 100% sure that she would never have agreed to this if she had known.”
‘Bomb hidden in gift for blogger’
Tatarsky was killed in a blast as he led a discussion at a cafe on the banks of the Neva River in the historic heart of St Petersburg.
Investigators believe the bomb used to kill Tatarsky was hidden in a bust of the blogger that the suspect had given to him as a gift just before the explosion.
CCTV shows what Russian officials claim is Trepova carrying a box, said to contain the bust, into the cafe before the explosion.
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
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In remarks recorded on video, a witness said that a woman who identified herself as Nastya asked questions and exchanged remarks with Tatarsky at the event.
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.
Video purporting to show suspect in St Petersburg cafe explosion is released by Russian media0:29
Play Video – CCTV captures Russian ‘cafe explosion suspect’
CCTV captures Russian ‘cafe explosion suspect’
Some media reports suggested that Trepova could have been unaware that the bust contained an explosive device and was used by those who staged the attack to deliver it.
Around 30 people were also wounded in the blast, with 10 of them said to be in a critical condition, according to the authorities.
Comparisons to Darya Dugina’s death
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.
No one has publicly claimed responsibility, but military bloggers and patriotic commentators immediately blamed Ukraine for the attack and compared the bombing to last August’s assassination of Ms Dugina.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, blamed Russian domestic terrorism for the blast.
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