Russian woman goes on trial in a cafe bombing that killed a prominent military blogger
A woman has gone on trial in St. Petersburg in the bombing at a cafe that killed a prominent Russian military blogger after he was given a bust of himself that then exploded
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A woman went on trial Wednesday in the bombing at a St. Petersburg cafe that killed a prominent Russian military blogger after he was given a bust of himself that later exploded.
Darya Trepova, 26, is charged with carrying out a terrorist attack, illegal trafficking of explosive devices and forging documents in the April 2 blast at the cafe in which Vladlen Tatarsky was killed and 52 others were injured.
She was arrested shortly after the bombing and faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted, according to Russian news reports.
Tatarsky, 40, was an ardent supporter of the Kremlin’s military action in Ukraine and filed regular reports on the fighting from the front lines.
Trepova was seen on video presenting Tatarsky with the bust moments before the blast at the riverside cafe in the historic heart of Russia's second-largest city where he was leading a discussion.
Russian media have reported that Trepova told investigators she was asked to deliver the statuette but didn’t know what was inside it.
Trepova's 27-year-old acquaintance, Dmitry Kasintsev, is standing trial with her, although he is under house arrest. She had stayed in his apartment after the blast, and the authorities have charged him with concealment of a grave crime.
Russian authorities have blamed Ukrainian intelligence agencies for orchestrating the bombing. Authorities in Kyiv have not directly responded to the accusation, but an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described the bombing as part of Russia’s internal turmoil.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, charged that a Ukrainian citizen whom it identified as Yuriy Denysov had gathered information about Tatarsky and supplied Trepova with explosives through a courier service. The FSB claimed that Denysov acted on orders from the Ukrainian security services.
Tatarsky was the pen name of Maxim Fomin, who had hundreds of thousand of followers on his Telegram messaging app channel. He had joined separatists in eastern Ukraine after a Moscow-backed insurgency erupted there in 2014 and fought on the front lines for years before turning to blogging.
Military bloggers have played an increasingly prominent role in Russia amid the fighting in Ukraine, supporting the Kremlin but often criticizing Russia's military leadership and exposing various military flaws. Unlike independent media or opposition figures, they haven't faced any crackdown for that criticism.
The FSB alleged Trepova was a supporter of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and that his top allies, Ivan Zhdanov and Leonid Volkov, have made repeated calls for subversive activities in Russia.
Zhdanov has alleged that authorities could try to use the explosion to extend Navalny’s prison term. The politician is currently serving 19 years in a penal colony east of Moscow after being convicted on extremism charges, which he alleges are false.
In a letter to the St. Petersburg news outlet Bumaga, Trepova claimed a journalist and a military blogger she knew asked her to attend Tatarsky's speaking engagements as part of a journalistic investigation, and she had no idea it would lead to a deadly explosion. She didn't identify that journalist in the letter.
“I didn't know I would be presenting (Tatarsky) with something,” Bumaga quoted Trepova as saying. “Morally, of course, it is very hard. I still can't believe in the reality of what had happened.”