Correspondent killed and several more injuries reported in mystery blast in Russia’s second city
One of Russia’s most popular military bloggers and correspondents was killed by an explosion at a cafe in St Petersburg on Sunday.
Maxim Fomin, better known by his alias Vladlen Tatarsky, was delivering a talk when a blast tore through the venue. Fifteen more injuries have been reported, according to Russian state media.
Police said the explosive device was hidden in a statue that contained more than 200 grams of TNT. Images circulating online showed the blogger being handed a statue.
How about: His posts were in several cases critical of Russia’s military leadership and approach to the invasion of Ukraine. He was also a militant nationalist whose views on the war were summed up in a comment he gave at a Kremlin reception: “We’ll conquer everyone, we’ll kill everyone, we’ll loot whoever we need to, and everything will be just as we like it.”
A photo posted from Tatarsky’s talk, moments before the explosion. The venue is reportedly owned by Evgeny Prigozhin. https://t.co/4Pw6COBADJ https://t.co/Fa2DNciAhk pic.twitter.com/9dvDF7MbUV
— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) April 2, 2023
He was among hundreds of attendees at a lavish Kremlin ceremony last September to proclaim Russia’s annexation of four partly occupied regions of Ukraine, a move that most countries at the UN condemned as illegal.
A St Petersburg website said the explosion took place at a cafe that had at one time belonged to Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private army, which is fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
No individual or group has taken responsibility for the blast. If Mr Fomin was deliberately targeted, it would be the second assassination on Russian soil of a figure associated with the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s Federal Security Service accused Ukraine’s secret services last August of killing Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist, in a car bomb attack near Moscow that President Vladimir Putin called “evil”. Ukraine denied involvement.
“His posts were in several cases critical of Russia’s military leadership and approach to the invasion of Ukraine.”
Another FSB job, that silenced a critic of Putler’s useless military.
Now we have nazis killing nazis. Dobre. One other little factoid for this story; the restaurant is owned by Prigozhin….lmao………..
Might be a little warning to Prigozhin. I think the mafia are getting nervous about this so called “Angry Brigade Club”
Yeah I think Vladolf’s tolerance for criticism is returning to normal. In turn, that may create MORE competition among the nazis and MORE Warlord mindsets and infighting.
Good! But, his death was too quick.
“Police said the explosive device was hidden in a statue that contained more than 200 grams of TNT. Images circulating online showed the blogger being handed a statue.”
A NY Times article stated, a “witness said Mr. Tatarsky had asked the woman to bring the statue to him, after she said she had been told she could not take it inside because of bombing fears.”
Wasn’t that clever of “Tatarsky” to do an end-run around the security people. 🙂 🙂 🙂
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/02/world/europe/russian-military-blogger-explosion.html