According to officials, the murder of Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky is being investigated as a “high-profile murder.”
An explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg on Sunday night claimed the life of Tatarsky, a vocal supporter of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine. As an explosion tore through the cafe where Vladlen Tatarsky was appearing as a guest of the pro-war organization Cyber Front Z, he perished. According to the authorities, murder is suspected in this case.
According to state-run media Ria Novosti, which cited the Russian Ministry of Health, at least 32 individuals were hurt in the explosion, with 10 of them in critical condition. According to official media, investigators were interviewing everyone who was present inside the cafe. The structure where the cafe was housed had sustained significant damage, as seen in photos taken on the scene.
When the device exploded, Tatarsky was a guest speaker at a gathering that the cafe was hosting. Russian media outlets have published contradicting reports regarding the explosive device. Official sources cited by Russian state media claim that Tatarsky received a statue in a box as a gift that was actually a bomb.
Who committed the attack cannot be immediately identified but Mykhailo Podolyak, a presidential advisor for Ukraine, however, claimed that the explosion was the result of a “political conflict inside Russia,” tweeting that “spiders are eating one other in a jar.”
According to Russian media accounts, Tatarsky might have been killed by a weapon concealed in a figurine that a woman gave him prior to the explosion. According to law enforcement officials and eyewitness testimonies cited by Russian state news media, the woman was present at the occasion when Tatarsky was speaking.
According to a witness, as reported by Ria Novosti, “This woman sat at our table. She turned her back on me, and I saw her. She left our table and proceeded to sit by the window after giving him the figurine, leaving her phone at our table.”
“The witness added: “The host at the stage took the figurine from the box and showcased it, Vladlen held it for a bit. They put it back and shortly after the explosion happened… I was running and my ears were blocked. There were many people with blood on them,” added the witness.
According to the St. Petersburg news outlet Fontanka, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Russia’s infamous Wagner mercenary gang, had previously owned the café that was attacked on Sunday.
President Putin was born and raised in St. Petersburg, where he initially obtained notoriety.
Glamour Adah
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