Woman accused of killing pro-war blogger in café bomb attack faces 28 years in Russian prison

Russian prosecutors on Friday requested nearly three decades in prison for a woman accused of killing a pro-war blogger in a bomb blast on a Saint Petersburg cafe last April.

Vladlen Tatarsky died when a miniature statue handed to him as a gift by Darya Trepova exploded in an attack that Russia says was orchestrated by Ukrainian secret services.

"The prosecutor is asking the court to find Trepova guilty and impose a sentence of 28 years in a prison colony," the press service for Saint Petersburg's courts said in a statement.

Authorities named Trepova as the culprit and arrested her less than 24 hours after the blast, charging her with terrorism and other offenses.

Prosecutors say she knowingly gave Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin, a device that had been rigged with explosives.

Trepova, 26, admitted giving Tatarsky the object but said she believed it had contained a hidden listening device, not a bomb.

She said she was acting under orders from a man in Ukraine and was motivated by her opposition to Russia's military offensive on Ukraine.

Tatarsky was an influential military blogger, one of the most prominent among a group of hardline correspondents that have gained huge followings since Russia launched its offensive.

With sources in the armed forces, they often publish exclusive information about the campaign ahead of government sources and Russian state media outlets, and occasionally criticise Russia's military tactics, pushing for a more aggressive assault.

More than 30 others were injured in the blast, which tore off the facade of the Saint Petersburg cafe where Tatarsky was giving a speech on April 2, 2023.

Trepova will be sentenced at a future hearing.

"I was very scared"

In testimony this week, Trepova again denied knowing she had been recruited for an assassination mission.

She told the court she had explicitly asked her handler in Ukraine, whom she knew by the name of Gestalt, if the statute he had sent her to give to Tatarsky was a bomb.

"I was very scared and asked Gestalt: 'Isn't this the same as with Daria Dugina?'" she said, referring to the pro-conflict Russian nationalist who was killed in a car bombing outside Moscow in August 2022.

"He said no, it was just a wiretap and a microphone," Trepova said.

After the explosion, Trepova said she angrily confronted Gestalt, realizing she had been set up.

Russian President Vladimir Putin posthumously bestowed a top award, the Order of Courage, on Tatarsky, citing his "courage and bravery shown during professional duty."

Moscow has accused Ukraine of staging several attacks and assassinations inside Russia, sometimes also blaming Kyiv's Western allies or the domestic opposition.

They included the car bomb that killed Dugina and another blast that targeted pro-Kremlin writer Zakhar Prilepin and killed his assistant.

Kyiv denied involvement in those but has appeared to revel in the spate of assassinations and attacks on high-profile backers of Moscow's offensive.

Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said last year that the assassination of Tatarsky was the result of infighting in Russia.

Prominent figures in Ukraine have also been targeted since the war began.

In November, officials said the wife of Ukraine's intelligence chief was diagnosed with heavy metals poisoning and was undergoing treatment in a hospital. Marianna Budanova is the wife of Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency known by its local acronym GUR. 

Officials told Ukrainian media last year that Budanov had survived 10 assassination attempts carried out by the FSB, the Russian state security service.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also claimed be targeted multiple times. In an interview with the British tabloid The Sun in November, Zelenskyy said that he's survived "no fewer" than five or six assassination attempts since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.

"The first one is very interesting, when it is the first time, and after that it is just like Covid," Zelenskyy told the Sun. "First of all, people don't know what to do with it and it's looking very scary. And then after that, it is just intelligence sharing with you detail that one more group came to Ukraine to [attempt] this."

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