Famous propagandist killed in an explosion in St Petersburg cafe that belonged to Wagner Group owner
Vladlen Tatarsky, a Russian "war correspondent" (military blogger), has been killed in an explosion in a cafe in central St Petersburg that formerly belonged to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner Group Private Military Company. 30 people were injured.
Source: TASS; Fontanka; RIA Novosti
Details: Russian emergency services told TASS that the explosion occurred in the Street-Bar cafe on Universitetskaya Embankment in central St Petersburg.
TASS later reported, citing law enforcement officers, that an explosive device containing over 200 g of TNT had gone off in the cafe.
The number of casualties currently stands at 16. One person was killed in the explosion.
Fontanka reported that the cafe used to belong to Yevgeny Prigozhin. A Cyber Z Front "discussion club" holds meetings in the cafe on weekends.
RIA Novosti and TASS sources reported that Vladlen Tatarsky, a "war correspondent", was killed in the explosion. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs later confirmed Tatarsky’s death.
The St Petersburg Governor later reported that the number of casualties rose to 25 and said that 19 of them have been hospitalised. Later, the number of injured increased to 30 people.
The Russian Ministry of Health reported that 24 people injured in the St Petersburg explosion were hospitalised, including 6 in critical condition, and 18 in moderate condition or with minor injuries.
The Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case over Tatarsky's murder under Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Sources told Fontanka that a statuette that Tatarsky was given by a woman had been rigged with explosives.The statuette exploded during the event celebrating Tatarsky’s work.
Residents of St Petersburg said that Tatarsky was presented with the statuette by a young woman. He thanked her for the gift, and she took her place in the room. The explosion occurred five minutes later. The guests sitting in the front rows sustained the most serious injuries. The police are searching for the woman who gave the statuette to Tatarsky.
Mykhailo Podoliak, advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine, said that in Russia, "spiders stuck in a jar are devouring one another".
"The Russian Federation sets off… Spiders stuck in a jar are devouring one another. The question of when domestic terrorism would become a tool of domestic political struggle in the tightly controlled country was a question of time, like waiting for an abscess to burst. There are irreversible changes and a great turmoil ahead of Russia. We, meanwhile, have our own work to do," Podoliak wrote.
У Рф починається… Павуки поїдають один одного в банці. Питання «Коли внутрішній тероризм стане інструментом внутрішньої політичної боротьби?» у країні закручених гайок було питанням часу, як прорив дозрілого гнійника. Рф чекають незворотні процеси і Смута 2.0. А нам своє робити
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) April 2, 2023
Reference: Fontanka reported that Vladlen Tatarsky (real name Maksim Fomin) was born in Makiivka [an industrial city in Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast - ed.] in 1982. He worked as a miner, then in private business. In 2014, when Russia started its hybrid aggression in Donbas, Tatarsky was in prison in Horlivka for armed robbery.
After the prison where he was being held was shelled, Tatarsky found himself free. Fontanka reported that he joined an armed [pro-Russian or Russian-backed] militia, fighting under the command of Igor Bezler, and was then "forced to transfer" to a unit in the forces of the Luhansk People’s Republic, an illegal [and Russian-backed] terrorist formation.
Tatarsky later served in "defence intelligence" but switched to "journalism" in 2017. He founded a group called Terykony Donbasu (Slag Heaps of Donbas) around the same time. In February 2022, he returned to the front as a "war correspondent".
Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
