A well-known Russian military blogger was killed in an explosion at a cafe in Saint Petersburg, northwestern Russia, on Sunday, according to the Russian Interior Ministry. “As a result of the incident, one person died. It (…) is about the military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky. Sixteen people were injured,” the ministry said in a statement. The injured “are being taken care of by medical personnel”, added the same source.
“A girl” “likely” brought the explosive device, according to a source quoted by the Ria Novosti agency. “She gave it to him”, then later, “all of a sudden there was an explosion”, told Agence France Presse. Alissa Smotrova, a lady present. “There was blood, shards of glass…” “There was a figurine in the box: a gift for Mr. Tatarsky,” the source adds. Aged 40 and born in the Ukrainian Donbass, Vladlen Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin, was a well-known figure in the military blogosphere in Russia, with more than half a million subscribers on his Telegram channel.
Around the building, the road was cordoned off, with about twenty police cars, six ambulances and fire trucks, noted an AFP journalist.
According to the first elements communicated, “at 6:13 p.m. (3:13 p.m. GMT), the police of the Vasileostrovsky district received information that an explosion had occurred in a cafe on the Universitetskaya Embankment, at number 25”. According to details given to Tass by the local prosecutor’s office, the explosion took place in the “Street Food Bar No. 1” cafe located along the Neva, not far from the historic center of Saint Petersburg.
“St. Petersburg police and emergency services are also working on site. The causes and circumstances of the incident are being established,” the Russian Interior Ministry said. St. Petersburg prosecutor Viktor Melnik visited the scene, Tass news agency said, adding that “an investigation has been launched” for “murder using dangerous means”. . “All necessary measures are being taken to identify those involved,” the Russian Investigative Committee added.
Vladlen Tatarskiï has developed his community on Telegram in particular by publishing, since the start of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, videos of analysis of the situation on the ground and advice for those mobilized, according to Tass. He declared himself in support of the Russian intervention in his Ukrainian neighbor.
In the wake of the start of the war in 2014, he fought for several months in pro-Russian separatist militias in eastern Ukraine, according to local news outlet Fontanka. The Cyber ??Front Z group, which describes itself on social media as “information soldiers of Russia”, said they had rented the cafe for the evening for an event. “There was a terrorist attack. We took some security measures, but unfortunately they weren’t enough,” the group said on Telegram.
According to Fontanka, there were less than 100 people at this event. An adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhailo Podoliak, reacted quickly, believing that “internal terrorism (as) an instrument of internal political struggle was only a matter of time”.
In August 2022, the Russian FSB security services accused their Ukrainian counterparts of having killed Daria Douguina, daughter of a reputed ideologue close to the Kremlin, who died in the explosion of her car near Moscow. However, such events in Russia have been very rare since the start of the military offensive in Ukraine more than a year ago.