Russian investigators on Tuesday formally charged Darya Trepova, a 26-year-old woman, with terrorism over the killing of the influential pro-war military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a bomb blast in St Petersburg.
Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, was killed on Sunday by a bomb blast as he was hosting a discussion with other pro-war commentators at a cafe on the banks of the Neva River in the historic heart of St Petersburg.
The investigative committee said it had charged Trepova with committing “a terrorist act by an organised group that caused intentional death”. It said Trepova had handed Tatarsky a statuette that later blew up, adding that she had acted under instructions from people working on behalf of Ukraine.
Trepova was arrested the day before in a flat in St Petersburg after an extensive search.
A newly published video circulating on Russia media showed Tatarsky taking a statuette out of a box – a small figurine in his likeness and painted gold – followed by what appeared to be an explosion.
Tatarsky, who had more than 560,000 followers on Telegram, was one of Russia’s most influential military bloggers. On Monday evening, he was awarded the posthumous Order of Courage by the president, Vladimir Putin.
Tatarsky was also one of the loudest critics of Russia’s defence ministry over the past year for its inability to achieve military gains in Ukraine, and frequently travelled with Russian troops on the frontlines. In one instance, he called for a tribunal for the Russian military leadership, describing Moscow’s top officers as “untrained idiots”.
Prominent Russian commentators and officials quickly blamed Ukraine as well as the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny for the attack.
In a statement on Monday, Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee claimed the attack was “planned by the special services of Ukraine with the involvement of agents from those who had cooperated with the so-called Navalny anti-corruption fund [foundation]”.
After the attack, the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who is deputy chair of Putin’s powerful security council, said the Russian opposition had showed its “true face” and should be “exterminated”.
“Don’t negotiate with terrorists. They should be exterminated like rabid dogs with poisonous saliva flowing from their mouths … Forgiveness and compassion are not applicable to them. This is what the highest justice is,” Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel.
Navalny’s close allies have denied having anything to do with the explosion. “It’s even strange that we have to write and say this, but no, the FBK is not involved in the murder of propagandist Vladlen Tatarsky,” Lyubov Sobol, a key Navalny ally, tweeted.
One Ukrainian official has suggested the attack was planned internally in a dispute between pro-Kremlin groups. Russian news reports said Trepova had said she had been used.
The authorities are likely to use the attack to drum up support for Russia’s continuing invasion of Ukraine as well as further intensify its crackdown on internal dissent.
Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, commenting on Tatarsky’s death, said: “That is exactly why the special military operation is being carried out.”