03.04.2023
A cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, exploded on Sunday (2nd), injuring dozens of people and killing a famous Russian military blogger. What is the specific content?
(Deutsche Welle Chinese Network) On Sunday (April 2), an explosion occurred in a cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia, killing Vladlen Tatarsky, a well-known Russian military blogger who was pro-Russian during the Russo-Ukraine War, and at least another 25 people were injured. It is still unclear who was responsible for the case, and it is reported that this is suspected to be the second assassination in Russia related to the war.
The bombing occurred during the activities of a local Russian patriotic organization group. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed that Tatarsky, a military blogger whose real name was Maxim Fomin, was killed in the bombing and said that he was investigating the case when it happened. Everyone present investigates, the Russian State Investigative Committee has launched a “murder” investigation into this.
The explosion took place at Street Food Bar No. 1 in St. Petersburg, which is said to have once belonged to Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary group. Prigozin said on the 2nd that he would not “blame the Kiev regime” for this. Denis Pushilin, the Russian-appointed leader of Donetsk, publicly blamed Ukraine.
Tatarsky was reportedly inviting people to a “patriotic night” organized by “Cyber Front Z,” which calls itself “Russia’s information force.” The group said on the social platform Telegram that the bombing was a “terrorist attack. We have taken some security measures, but unfortunately they are not enough.”
According to sources quoted by Russia’s TASS news agency, the explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device hidden inside a statue given to Tatarsky as a gift.
The picture shows the scene of the bombing in St. Petersburg on the 2nd.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement stating that bloggers like Tatarsky are often threatened by Kiev, and at the same time condemned the silence of Western governments on this matter, exposing their hypocrisy for the incident of journalists (the reporter of the Wall Street Journal in Russia was arrested by the Russian side) concern.
On the other hand, Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to the Ukrainian president, said he believed the bombing was carried out by Russian domestic terrorists. “Spiders are killing each other in a jar. It is only a matter of time before domestic terrorism becomes a tool of domestic political struggle,” he said.
Tatarsky has 560,000 followers on Telegram. He is one of the most influential military bloggers in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but he has also criticized the actions of the top Russian army in the Ukrainian-Russian war.
If the bombing was deliberately targeted at Tatarsky, it would be the second known assassination on Russian soil linked to the campaign. Last August, Russia’s FSB accused Ukraine’s secret service of killing the daughter of a Russian ultranationalist, Darya Dugina, in a car bomb attack near Moscow that Ukraine denies any involvement in.
(comprehensive report)
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