In St. Petersburg, the trial began today against 26-year-old Darya Trepova on charges of bombing a restaurant in the city that killed a prominent Russian military blogger after he was given a statuette that later exploded, the Associated Press reported.
Trepova is accused of carrying out a terrorist attack, illegal trafficking of explosive devices and falsifying documents in connection with the explosion on April 2 of this year. The explosion took the life of Vladlen Tatarski, and 52 people were injured.
The young woman was arrested shortly after the attack and could face up to 30 years in prison if found guilty, according to Russian media reports.
The woman accused of murdering a prominent Russian military blogger says she is “deeply sorry” for what happened
Tatarsky, 40, was an ardent supporter of the Kremlin’s military actions in Ukraine and often wrote about the front-line fighting.
Trepova was caught on video handing Tatarsky the statuette moments before the explosion. The explosion occurred at a restaurant on the banks of the Neva River in the historic heart of Russia’s second-largest city, during a meeting of Tatarsky with his supporters.
At her court appearance, Trepova pleaded guilty to falsifying documents, but continued to maintain her innocence on charges of carrying out a terrorist attack and illegal trafficking of explosives. Trepova said she did not know there was a bomb in the bust she gave Tatarsky, Russian media reported.
FSB: Tatarsky’s murder was the work of Ukrainian special services and Russian oppositionists
Trepova’s 27-year-old acquaintance Dmitry Kasintsev is Trepova’s co-accused, although he is under house arrest. Darya Trepova lived in his apartment after the explosion, and the authorities charged him with concealment related to a serious crime. Kasintsev said in court that he was willing to plead guilty to a lesser charge of failing to report a crime.
The judge announced today that one of those injured in the blast had died, without giving details on whether this was related to the blast, and adjourned the hearing until Friday.
Russian authorities blamed Ukrainian intelligence services for organizing the bombing. Authorities in Kiev have not directly responded to the accusation, but an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the explosion as part of Russia’s internal turmoil.
They accused Daria Trepova of a terrorist act that killed the military blogger Maxim Fomin
Russia’s Federal Security Service accused a Ukrainian national it identified as Yury Denisov of gathering information about Tatarsky and supplying Trepova with explosives through a courier service. The FSS claims that Denisov acted on the orders of the Ukrainian security services.
Tatarsky was the pseudonym of Maxim Fomin, who had hundreds of thousands of followers on his Telegram messaging channel. He joined separatists in eastern Ukraine after a Moscow-backed insurgency erupted there in 2014, and was on the front lines for several years before turning to blogging.
Kremlin: Tatarsky’s murder is a terrorist act, Kiev is behind it
Military bloggers are playing an increasingly prominent role in Russia amid the fighting in Ukraine, supporting the Kremlin but often criticizing the Russian military leadership and exposing various military failings. Unlike independent media or opposition figures, they have faced no reprisals for their criticism.
The FSS claims that Trepova is a supporter of detained Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and that his top allies Ivan Zhdanov and Leonid Volkov have made repeated calls for subversion in Russia.
Zhdanov argued that authorities may try to use the explosion to extend Navalny’s sentence. The politician is currently serving 19 years in a penal colony east of Moscow after being convicted on charges of extremism that he says are false.
They arrested a woman suspected of the explosion that killed the Russian military blogger
In a letter to the St. Petersburg news bulletin Bumaga, Trepova claimed that a journalist and military blogger she knew had asked her to attend the meeting with Tatarsky as part of a journalistic investigation, and she had no idea it would lead to a deadly explosion. She did not identify that journalist in the letter.
“I didn’t know I was going to give something (to Tatarski),” “Bumaga” quoted Trepova as saying. “Morally, of course, it’s very difficult for me. I still can’t believe that this really happened.”
Source: BTA, Petya Gergova
2023-11-15 18:33:35
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