Woman arrested over murder of Russian blogger Vladlen Tatarsky

The FSB claims Daria Trepova, an anti-war activist, admitted to ‘being at the spot of the killing’ and handing Vladlen Tatarsky a statuette that exploded.

Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin was killed in a blast in St Petersburg. Picture: Getty Images.

A woman who handed high profile Russian propagandist Vladlen Tatarsky a hand made statue, concealing a bomb inside, has been arrested for murder.

Tatarsky was killed and another 30 injured, 10 critically, in the huge blast that destroyed a St Petersburg cafe on Sunday where the blogger and activist had been receiving an award for his pro-Russian activism.

Darya Trepova has been arrested over the murder.

The bomb attack immediately prompted accusations within the Kremlin and in Ukraine as to possible suspects.

Tatarsky, a convicted bank robber who had been fighting in Donbas since 2014, was close to the Russian mercenary group Wagner, had been a virulent blogger and hosted an “Evening Vladen” summary of the war and his opinions, and occasionally appeared on the prime time show hosted by Russia television presenter Vladimir Solovyev.

One social post gives the tenor of his arguments: “We will defeat everyone, we will kill everyone, we will rob everyone we need, everything will be as we like.”

Municipal workers clean the debris in the aftermath of the cafe bomb blast. Picture; AFP.

On Monday, social media accounts linked to the Russian security unit FSB released a video where 26 year old Daria Trepova, an anti-war activist from St Petersburg, admits to “being at the spot of the killing of Tatarsky” and handing the small statue to him.

“I brought the figurine that exploded there,” she said, saying she would explain later who gave it to her. A second video showing her arrest was overlaid with commentary that the statue was made inside Trepova’s apartment. Other videos show Tatarsky admiring the statue when it was handed to him, which was an impression of himself.

There were also rumours on social media that the Russian Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was meant to attend the meeting inside the St Petersburg cafe but he cancelled at the last minute.

Prigozhin later confirmed that the cafe belonged to him and he commented on the bombing, and its similarity to the death of Daria Dugina, the daughter of ultra nationalist Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, who died in a car-bomb attack last August.

Prigozhin told Nexta TV: ”Indeed, I gave the cafe to the patriotic movement Kiber (Cyber) Front Z and they held various seminars there. This tragedy most likely occurred at the seminar. As for the death of Daria Dugina – yes, everything is similar. But I wouldn’t blame the Kyiv regime for these actions. I think a group of radicals who are unlikely to have any connections with the government are acting.”

Dmitry Rylov, Trepova’s husband, told SVTV from his residence in Uzbekistan that his wife would never have been able to do something like this on her own.

“Yes, Daria and I do not support the war in Ukraine but we believe that such actions are unacceptable,” he said.

Security experts say that bomb was detonated by someone watching Tatarsky receiving the statue, which had been hollowed out to hide an IED.