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A5
WORLD NEWS Monday 3 april 2023

Explosion in Russian cafe kills prominent military blogger

By The Associated Press
An explosion tore through
a cafe in Russia's second-
largest city Sunday, killing
a well-known military blog-
ger and strident supporter
of the war in Ukraine. Some
reports said a bomb was
embedded in a bust of the
blogger that was given to
him as a gift.
Russian officials said
Vladlen Tatarsky was killed
as he was leading a dis-
cussion at the cafe on the
bank of the Neva River in
the historic heart of St. Pe-
tersburg. Twenty-five peo-
ple were wounded in the
blast, and 19 of them were
hospitalized, according to
the regional governor, Al-
exander Beglov.
Russian media and military
bloggers said Tatarsky was
meeting with members of
the public when a woman Russian investigators work at the site of an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday,
presented him with a box April 2, 2023.
containing a bust of him Associated Press
that apparently blew up.
A patriotic Russian group ruled out the possibility that place in Kyiv." a Russia-backed separat-
that organized the event an explosive device was Since the fighting in Ukraine ist rebellion engulfed the
said it had taken security planted in the cafe before began Feb. 24, 2022, Ukrai- Donbas in 2014, weeks af-
precautions but acknowl- the event. nian authorities have re- ter Moscow's annexation of
edged that those measures Russia's Investigative Com- frained from claiming re- Ukraine's Crimean Peninsu-
"proved insufficient." mittee, the state's top crim- sponsibility for various fires la. Then he joined separat-
In remarks recorded on inal investigation agency, and explosions and appar- ist rebels and fought on the
video, a witness said that a opened a probe on charg- ent assassinations in Rus- front line before turning to
woman who identified her- es of murder. sia. At the same time, offi- blogging.
self as Nastya asked ques- No one publicly claimed cials in Kyiv have jubilantly Tatarsky was known for his
tions and exchanged re- responsibility, but military greeted such events and blustery pronouncements
marks with Tatarsky during bloggers and patriotic insisted on Ukraine's right to and ardent pro-war rheto-
the discussion. commentators immedi- launch attacks in Russia. ric.
The witness, Alisa Smotrova, ately pointed a finger at A top Ukrainian govern- After the Kremlin's an-
quoted Nastya as saying Ukraine and compared the ment official cast the ex- nexation of four regions of
she had made a bust of the bombing to the killing last plosion that killed Tatarsky Ukraine last year that most
blogger but that guards August of Darya Dugina, a as part of internal turmoil. of the world rejected as il-
asked her to leave it at the nationalist TV commenta- "Spiders are eating each legal, Tatarsky posted a
door, suspecting it could tor. She was killed when a other in a jar," Ukraini- video in which he vowed:
be a bomb. Nastya and Ta- remotely controlled explo- an presidential adviser "That's it. We'll defeat ev-
tarsky joked and laughed. sive device planted in her Mykhailo Podolyak wrote in erybody, kill everybody,
She then went to the door, SUV blew up as she was English on Twitter. "Question rob everybody we need to.
grabbed the bust and pre- driving on the outskirts of of when domestic terrorism It will all be the way we like
sented it to Tatarsky. Moscow. would become an instru- it. God be with you."
He reportedly put the bust Russian authorities blamed ment of internal political Military bloggers have
on a nearby table, and the Ukraine's military intelli- fight was a matter of time." played an increasingly
explosion followed. Smotro- gence for Dugina's death, Tatarsky, who had filed reg- prominent and influential
va described people run- but Kyiv denied involve- ular reports from Ukraine, role in the flow of informa-
ning in panic, some hurt by ment. was the pen name for Max- tion about Russia's inva-
shattered glass and cov- Her father, Alexander Du- im Fomin, who had accu- sion of Ukraine. They have
ered in blood. gin, a nationalist philoso- mulated more than 560,000 almost universally champi-
A video posted on Russian pher and political theorist followers on his Telegram oned the goals of the cam-
messaging app channels who strongly supports the messaging app channel. paign but at times criticize
showed the cafe after the invasion of Ukraine, hailed Born in the Donbas, Russian military strategy
explosion. Tables and chairs Tatarsky as an "immortal" Ukraine's industrial heart- and tactical decisions.
were broken and stained hero who died to save the land, Tatarsky worked as a At the same time, the Krem-
by blood, and shards of Russian people. coal miner before starting lin has squelched alterna-
glass littered the floor. "There must be no talks with a furniture business. When tive voices opposing the
Russian media said investi- the terrorists other than he ran into financial difficul- war by shutting down news
gators were looking at the about their unconditional ties, he robbed a bank and outlets, limiting the public's
bust as the possible source surrender," Dugin said. "A was sentenced to prison. access to information and
of the blast but have not victory parade must take He fled from custody after jailing critics.q