Authorities have said the killing of Russian military blogger Vladilon Tatarsky is being investigated as a “high-profile murder.”
Tatarsky, a vocal supporter of Russia’s war in Ukraine, was killed in an explosion at a St. Petersburg cafe on Sunday evening.
Twenty-four others were taken to hospital and six are in critical condition, the health ministry said.
Videos posted on social media showed explosions and injured people on the road.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack.
Police were called to Street Food Bar No. 1 near the Neva River at 18:13 local time (15:13 GMT), Interior Ministry officials said.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country’s top criminal investigation agency, has launched an investigation into what it described as a “high-profile murder.”
He added in a telegram that crime-fighters have been dispatched to the scene.
Tatarsky was the guest speaker at an event held at the cafe when the bomb exploded.
There are conflicting reports in the Russian media about the explosive device. According to official sources quoted by Russian state media, Tatarsky was presented with a statue in a box with a bomb hidden inside.
A video circulating on Telegram after the blast shows him being handed a statue and joking about it. JEE News has been unable to confirm whether it was an explosive device.
Unlike many other Russian military bloggers and state media journalists in Ukraine, Tatarsky took up arms in combat operations, says JEE News
He reported from the frontline in Ukraine and gained particular notoriety last year after posting a video filmed inside the Kremlin in which he said: “We will defeat everyone, kill us all. We will rob them all.”
The occasion was a Kremlin event hosted by President Vladimir Putin announcing Russia’s annexation of four partially occupied regions of Ukraine. The occupation of this land was condemned internationally.
The cafe targeted on Sunday was previously owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia’s notorious Wagner rental group, St. Petersburg news site Fontanka reported.
St. Petersburg is President Putin’s hometown, and where he first rose to prominence.
