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Explosion in St Petersburg café kills high-profile Russian military blogger
3 April 2023
An explosion yesterday afternoon (2 April) in a café in central St Petersburg has killed Vladlen Tatarsky, a high-profile Russian military blogger and vocal supporter of Russia's war in Ukraine. The explosion, which happened at 18.13 local time, killed Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, as well as injuring twenty-four others, six of whom are in a critical condition, according to the Russian health ministry. It is not yet clear who is responsible for the attack, which Russian authorities have said is being investigated as "high-profile murder". Tatarsky had been a guest speaker at an event at the Street Food Bar No 1 café in central St Petersburg when he was targeted. While there are conflicting reports about the nature of the explosive device that killed him, soon after the explosion videos on social media emerged of him being handed a box with a statue inside as a gift, which had a bomb hidden inside, according to Russian sources. Later on Sunday evening, Russian media published a video of a woman being taken out of an apartment belonging to Darya Trepova, a St Petersburg local understood to have been born in 1997 and had previously been arrested at anti-war rallies. Sources suggest they have reason to believe she was responsible for Tatarsky's murder.