The Russian news agency Tass reported the killing of the Russian nationalist blogger and war correspondent, Vladlen Tatarsky. He was the victim of an attack in a coffee bar in St. Petersburg. The violent explosion was caused by 200 grams of TNT, hidden in a statuette depicting the blog, causing one death and 30 injuries, some of which were very serious.
Following information from the security services, the Russian agency Tass reports that “at 18.13 local time in Moscow on April 2, 2023, the police received information about an explosion on the Universitetsjaya embankment. The war correspondent died in the violent explosion Vladlen Tatarsky".
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The Ukrainian newspaper ukrainska pravda remarks that the explosion took place in a café-bar which belonged to Yevgeny Prigozhin – the head of the Russian private militia Wagner.
The Russian agency Ria Novosti he writes that probably “it would have been “a girl” who carried the bomb that killed the Russian ultranationalist blogger:“There was a statuette in the box - a gift intended for Mr. Tatarsky“, added the same source. According to Ukrainska Pravda, in the early hours of this morning, a 26-year-old girl was arrested, Daria Trepova of St. Petersburg, as she was highly suspected of the bar bombing. The girl was known to law enforcement agencies for her fervent anti-war activism in Ukraine.
The cyber group Front Z, who defines himself on social media "Russian Information Soldiers", said he rented the cafe for the evening. “There has been a terrorist attack. We have taken some security measures but unfortunately they were not enough“the group said on Telegram. St. Petersburg prosecutor Viktor Melnik went to the scene, the Tass news agency said, adding that "an investigation has been launched".
Who was Tatarsky
"Until we find out the name of this military genius who placed the tactical battalion near the river, and he doesn't publicly answer for it, there will be no reforms in the army.". With this post on Telegram, published a year ago, Vladlen Tatarsky criticized the inefficiency of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine. The Russian ultranationalist blogger who was killed was called Maksim Fomin but used the pseudonym "Vladlen Tatarsky".
He had a long experience of war in the Donbass from 2014 to 2015, alongside the Donetsk separatists, later becoming one of the most followed pro-Moscow military bloggers, with hundreds of thousands of followers, and was considered very close to the mercenary leader Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The TASS agency reported that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine Tatarsky "analyzed the course of the operation on a daily basis and gave advice to the mobilized". He was also highly critical of Russian military leaders. In May 2022 on Telegram he denounced the defeat suffered by the Russians in the failed crossing of the Seversky Donetsk river: “The offensive in Donbass is hampered not only by the lack of effective intelligence from drones but also by the lack of top-level generals”.