On 2 April 2023, a

bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

ing occurred in the Street Food Bar No.1 café on

Universitetskaya Embankment Universitetskaya Embankment () is a 1.2 km long embankment on the right bank of the Bolshaya Neva, on Vasilievsky Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Starting at the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, it spans between Palace Bridge and Blagovesh ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, Russia. Russian military blogger

Vladlen Tatarsky Maxim Yuryevich Fomin (25 April 1982 – 2 April 2023), better known as Vladlen Tatarsky, was a Ukrainian-born Russian military blogger, propagandist, convicted bank robber, and participant in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Tatarsky was active as a ...

, real name Maxim Fomin, died as a result of the explosion and 42 people were injured, 24 of whom were hospitalized, including six in critical conditions. Russia accused Ukraine of being behind the attack and labelled it a "terrorist act", while Ukraine blamed the attack on "

domestic terrorism Domestic terrorism or homegrown terrorism is a form of terrorism in which victims "within a country are targeted by a perpetrator with the same citizenship" as the victims.Gary M. Jackson, ''Predicting Malicious Behavior: Tools and Techniques ...

". The

National Republican Army The National Republican Army (; abbreviated ENR), colloquially known as the Army of the North ( Italian: ''Esercito del Nord'') was the army of the Italian Social Republic (, or RSI) from 1943 to 1945, fighting on the side of Nazi Germany durin ...

also claimed responsibility for the attack. Darya Trepova was convicted of the murder in 2024.

Background

In 2022 and 2023, a number of Russian businessmen were found dead under suspicious circumstances. In addition, Ukraine was accused of being behind attacks against pro-war figures, such as in the killing of

Darya Dugina Darya Aleksandrovna Dugina (; 15 December 1992 – 20 August 2022), also known under the pen name Daria Platonova (), was a Russian journalist, political scientist, and activist. She was the daughter of Aleksandr Dugin, a far-right politic ...

was an influential Russian military blogger with more than 560,000 followers on

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

. Before his death, he criticized Russia's strategy in the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

but was also a staunch supporter of the invasion. The café where the explosion occurred belonged to

Yevgeny Prigozhin Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (1 June 1961 – 23 August 2023) was a Russian mercenary leader and oligarch. He led the Wagner Group, a private military company, and was a close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin until launching a ...

. The Cyber Z Front discussion club gathered there on weekends.

Explosion

According to several sources, including

Russian authorities The Russian Government () or fully titled the Government of the Russian Federation () is the highest federal executive governmental body of the Russian Federation. It is accountable to the president of the Russian Federation and controlled by t ...

, Vladlen Tatarsky was offered a statuette by a woman, which is thought to have subsequently exploded. The power of the explosives inside of the statuette was reportedly more than 200g of

TNT equivalent TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. A ton of TNT equivalent is a unit of energy defined by convention to be (). It is the approximate energy released in the de ...

. The explosion caused the front of the café to collapse. Police were called to the scene at 18:13 local time.

Victims

According to the Ministry of Health, one person (Tatarsky) died. By the evening of 2 April, the number of wounded rose to 42. Twenty-four wounded were taken to medical institutions in Saint Petersburg from the café. The condition of six wounded people was assessed as serious.

Suspects

Russian law enforcement agencies started investigating the incident shortly after it occurred. A resident of Saint Petersburg, Darya Yevgenyevna Trepova (born 16 February 1997), was considered as a suspect by the Investigative Committee. Investigators believed that she brought to the café a box with a bust of Tatarsky, in which an explosive device was mounted. She had earlier been detained for 10 days, along with her husband, after attending an

anti-war protest An anti-war movement is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conf ...

against the

on 24 February 2022 for apparently ignoring police orders to disperse. Russian officials also claimed she was an "active supporter" of jailed opposition leader

Alexei Navalny Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny (, ; 4 June 197616 February 2024) was a Russian Opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia, opposition leader, anti-corruption in Russia, corruption activist and political prisoner. He founded the Anti-Corruption Found ...

. On the next day, in the morning of 3 April, the Investigative Committee announced that she had been detained after being placed on the wanted list earlier that day. Trepova's husband, Dmitry Rylov, said that she was detained at the apartment of his friend Dmitry Kasintsev, who was also detained, according to '' The Insider''. Russian authorities did not confirm a second detention. Rylov, a member of the fringe opposition

Libertarian Party of Russia The Libertarian Party of Russia () is a libertarian political party in the Russian Federation founded in 2008 based on "self-ownership and non-aggression". The party has had two members elected to local office, one in Moscow and the other in Mosc ...

, stated that "she would never kill" and that he believed she was framed. In a video released by the

Ministry of Internal Affairs An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the i ...

, Trepova confessed to bringing in the statuette but unconfirmed reports by Russian media stated that she had told investigators that she had been set up and was unaware that the statuette had contained a bomb. In the video, she appeared to agree that she brought the statuette to the café, but didn't answer to the interrogation about the origin of the statuette. Russian officials said that the possibility of Trepova being conned was not ruled out. Russia accused Ukraine of organising the attack; the National Anti-terrorism Committee accused Ukrainian intelligence services and supporters of

of being behind the attack, echoed by Kremlin spokesperson

Dmitry Peskov Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov (, ; born 17 October 1967) is a Russian diplomat serving as the Kremlin Press Secretary, spokesman for President of Russia, Russian president Vladimir Putin since 2012. Ukrainian presidential advisor

Mykhailo Podolyak Mykhailo Mykhailovych Podolyak (; born 16 February 1972) is a Ukrainian politician, journalist and negotiator, serving as the advisor to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. In 2022, he became one of the representatives of Ukraine ...

blamed the attack on "

" and "an internal political fight", while Navalny's allies rejected the accusation and said it was more likely Russia's own intelligence services were behind the attack.

, the head of the

Wagner Group The Wagner Group (), officially known as PMC Wagner (, ), is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) controlled 2023 Wagner Group plane crash, until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Pu ...

, paid tribute to Tatarsky in a video after the attack. He also said that he would not blame the Ukrainian government for the attack, instead saying he believed there was a group of radicals. On 4 April, the

(NRA), which previously claimed to be behind the killing of

in August 2022, claimed responsibility for the attack. The NRA did not provide any evidence for its claim.

Investigation and legal proceedings

The

Investigative Committee of Russia The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF; ) has since January 2011 been the main federal investigating authority in Russia. Its name (''Sledstvennyi komitet'') is usually abbreviated to ''SKR'' (). The agency replaced the Ru ...

opened a criminal case under article 105 of the

Criminal Code of Russia The Russian Criminal Code () is the prime source of the Law of the Russian Federation concerning criminal offences. The 1996 Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (UGKRF) came into force on 1 January 1997. The new Criminal Code replaced the So ...

which criminalizes acts of murder. The next day, the Investigative Committee decided to change the article to article 205, which criminalizes acts of terrorism. On 4 April, Trepova was charged by the Investigative Committee under the criminal code with a "terrorist act committed by an organized group that resulted in the deliberate infliction of death on a person" and the "illegal carrying of explosive devices committed by an organized group". Terrorism can carry a life sentence in Russia, though this does not apply to women. Consequently, Trepova faces up to 20 years in a penal colony if convicted. She was initially remanded in custody with a release date of 2 June, but that was subsequently extended to 3 September. Trepova was brought before a court on 15 November, to be charged with carrying out a terrorist attack, illegal trafficking of explosive devices and forging documents. On 25 January 2024, Trepova was sentenced to 27 years in prison, one of the longest prison sentences ever given to a woman in modern Russian history.

Aftermath

President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

awarded the Order of Courage to Tatarsky posthumously.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tatarsky, Vladlen 2023 building bombings

Bombing A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

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