Russian investigators have detained a woman in the hunt for the killers of pro-war blogger Vladilon Tatarsky in an explosion at a St. Petersburg cafe.
In a video released by authorities – presumably recorded under duress – Darya Trepova is heard admitting that she handed over a statue that was later blown up.
But in the released footage, she doesn’t say she knew there was going to be an explosion, nor admits to any further role.
More than 30 people were injured in a bomb blast in another Russian city.
Tatarsky attended a patriotic meeting with supporters at the cafe as a guest speaker.
A video circulating on social media shows a young woman in a brown coat entering the cafe with what appears to be a cardboard box.
Photos showed the box being placed on a table in the cafe before the woman sat down. Another video shows a statue being handed over to Tatarsky.
In a brief excerpt from her interrogation released by the ministry, 26-year-old Darya Trepova appeared stressed, sighing repeatedly.
When her interrogator asked if she knew why she had been detained, she replied: “I would say because of being at the scene of the murder of Vladolin Tatarsky… I saw that statue. handed over to whoever had detonated it.”
Asked who gave it to her, she replied: “Can I tell you later?”
Russia’s Anti-Terrorism Committee alleged that the attack was carried out by Ukrainian special services “in collusion” with opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Mr Navalny has been in prison since returning to Russia from Germany in January 2021. He survived a nerve agent attack in Russia in August 2020, which was blamed on Russian security service agents.
According to Russian reports, Ms Trepova was detained in a St Petersburg flat owned by a friend of her husband.
On the day of Russia’s all-out invasion last year, he was reportedly detained for several days for taking part in an anti-war demonstration.
The cafe, street food bar No. 1 near the Neva River, was once owned by Evgeny Prigozhin – who runs Russia’s notorious Wagner mercenary group that has been involved in much of the fighting in Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine.
Prigozhin said he had handed it over to Cyberfront Z, which calls itself “Russia’s information troops,” and said he had rented a cafe for the evening.
Prigozhin paid tribute to Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, in a late-night video he filmed from Bakhmut’s town hall.
He displayed a flag which he said bore the words “In good memory of Vladylan Tatarsky”.
Tatarsky, an outspoken supporter of Russia’s war in Ukraine, was neither a Russian official nor a military officer. He was a popular blogger with over half a million followers and, like Prigosan, had a criminal past.
Born in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, he said he joined Russian-backed separatists after they released him from prison, where he was serving time for armed robbery.
He was part of a pro-Kremlin military blogger community that has played a relatively high profile since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Tatarsky is among those who have criticized the Russian authorities, criticizing the military and even President Vladimir Putin for failing on the battlefield.
Unusually, Tatarsky took up arms in combat operations and reported from the front line. He claimed to have helped launch war drones and build forts.
Last September, he posted a video inside the Kremlin of Mr. Putin announcing the annexation of four occupied Ukrainian territories.
“We will defeat everyone, we will kill everyone, we will rob everyone as necessary. As we like,” Tatarsky told his followers.
