Russia's Investigative Committee has formally charged Darya Trepova for terrorism offenses for her alleged role in the assassination of a prominent Russian war blogger at a St. Petersburg cafe.
The committee, the country's top state criminal investigation agency, said on April 4 that Trepova, 26, was charged with committing "a terrorist act by an organized group that caused intentional death" in the blast, which killed Vladlen Tatarsky, the pen name of prominent blogger Maksim Fomin. Tatarsky was known for backing Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and support for Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
The committee added that Trepova was working on the instructions of people representing Ukraine, which Moscow invaded in February 2022, sparking a war that has killed thousands.
Trepova, who was transferred to Moscow where she is expected to have a court hearing placing her in pretrial detention for at least two months, has been described in Russian media as a Russian national and St. Petersburg resident who had been previously detained for taking part in anti-war rallies. The Interior Ministry named Trepova on April 3 as a suspect in Tatarsky's killing and added her to its Most Wanted list.
Following her detention, the Interior Ministry posted a video of Trepova, who may have been speaking under duress, telling an interrogator that she "brought a statuette there that exploded." When asked who had given her the bust, she replied that she would say "later."
Tatarsky was killed when an explosion tore through the cafe along the banks of the central Neva River where he was leading a discussion.
Russian media have said that Tatarsky was meeting with attendees when a woman presented him with a box containing a small bust of him that apparently exploded. A witness said in video remarks to the local publication Fontanka that a woman who had identified herself as "Nastya" had asked questions and exchanged remarks with Tatarsky during the event.
The witness said Nastya had told Tatarsky that she had made a bust of the blogger but had been told by security guards to leave it at the door because they suspected it was a bomb. Nastya then went to the door, retrieved the bust and gave it to Tatarsky. After he placed the bust on a table, the explosion occurred, according to the witness.
REN-TV posted a video shot by an eyewitness that appears to show Tatarsky receiving the bust.
Surveillance video from outside the Street Bar cafe and posted on the Russian Telegram channel 112 showed what it said was the moment of the blast that occurred at about 6:15 p.m. The video showed an explosion that blew out cafe windows, collapsed part of a large sunroom, and scattered debris onto the street. The Russian state news agency TASS reported that the explosive device contained more than 200 grams of TNT.
Trepova allegedly then fled the scene. Reports initially indicated that she was detained on April 2, but it was subsequently reported that her mother and sister had been summoned for questioning, and that she was allegedly on the run.
The news site Baza said that Trepova's husband, identified as Dmitry Rylov, is also being sought. Rylov is believed to be a member of the Libertarian Party, which has said he has been abroad and had nothing to do with the incident.
The Street Food Bar No. 1 cafe, located on the University Embankment near St. Petersburg University on the city's central Vasilyevsky Island, was formerly owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, also known as "Putin's chef." St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, is President Vladimir Putin's hometown and the place where his political rise began.
Prigozhin is a Kremlin-connected businessman who controls the Wagner mercenary group, a private force that is playing a prominent role in Russia's war effort in Ukraine. Prigozhin said in April 3 comments posted by his press service that he handed the cafe over to a patriotic group called Cyber Z Front for meetings.
Tatarsky was a well-known social media figure and supporter of Russia's unprovoked war against Ukraine. His blog has about 500,000 subscribers and his appearance drew about 100 people to Street Food Bar No. 1 on April 2. He fought alongside pro-Russian forces fighting against Kyiv's forces in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, where he was born, after Russia's invasion and annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
During a ceremony in September hosted by President Putin in celebration of Russia's illegal annexation of four Ukrainian regions, Tatarsky posted a video from inside the Kremlin saying: We will defeat everyone, we will kill everyone, we will rob everyone as necessary. Just as we like it."
Tatarksky is widely considered by Ukrainian media to have been a Kremlin propagandist, and pro-Kremlin media have accused Ukraine of being behind his death. No groups or individuals have claimed responsibility for the blast.
While Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in response to Tatarsky's death that his activities “won him the hatred of the Kyiv regime,” Prigozhin said he doubted the attack was related to the Ukrainian government, and was likely carried out by a "group of radicals."
Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee also has claimed that the attack was planned by Ukraine's special services and by "agents" allegedly collaborating with Aleksei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation. Navalny is a prominent Kremlin opponent who survived a near-fatal poisoning in Siberia in 2020 that he blames on Putin. The opposition politician and anti-corruption activist, who tried to run against Putin for the presidency in 2018 but was kept off the ballot, is currently serving a nine-year sentence for fraud that his supporters say is politically motivated.
Navalny has been an outspoken critic of Russia's war against Ukraine, and his Anti-Corruption Foundation has been banned as an "extremist" organization.
Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak has said that the assassination was part of an internal conflict in Russia.
Tatarsky's death marks the second assassination of a prominent advocate of Russia's war against Ukraine. In August, nationalist TV commentator Darya Dugina was killed in a car bombing near Moscow.
Russian authorities blamed Ukrainian military intelligence for the death of Dugina, whose father is well-known Russian war supporter and idealogue Aleksandr Dugin. Kyiv denied involvement in Dugina's death.