[News] Darya Trepova: Russia releases video of suspect in cafe killing of Vladlen Tatarsky

[BirSaNN]

Russian investigators have detained a woman in their hunt for the killers of pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in Sunday's blast at a St Petersburg cafe.

In video released by authorities - most likely recorded under duress - Darya Trepova is heard admitting she handed over a statuette that later blew up.

But the 26-year-old does not say she knew there would be an explosion, nor does she admit any further role.

Investigators said they had evidence the attack was organised from Ukraine.

However, Kyiv officials said it was a case of Russian infighting.

More than 30 people were wounded in the bombing in Russia's second city.

Tatarsky (real name Maxim Fomin), aged 40, had been attending a patriotic meeting with supporters in the cafe as a guest speaker late on Sunday afternoon.

A video circulating on social media showed a young woman in a brown coat apparently entering the cafe with a cardboard box.

Images showed the box being placed on a table in the cafe before the woman sat down. Another video showed a statue being handed to Tatarsky.

In a brief excerpt of her interrogation released by the Russian authorities, Darya Trepova appeared under duress as she sighed repeatedly.

When her interrogator asked if she knew why she was detained, she replied: "I would say for being at the scene of Vladlen Tatarsky's murder... I brought the statuette there which blew up."

Asked who gave it to her she responded: "Can I tell you later please?"

What we know about detained cafe blast suspect
Russia's anti-terrorism committee alleged the "terror attack" was organised by Ukrainian special services "with people co-operating with" opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The investigative committee later went further, saying it had evidence it was "planned and organised from Ukrainian territory". It was working to establish the "entire chain" of people involved, it added.

Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, which has released a series of exposés of corruption involving the Putin entourage, said it was "very convenient" for the Kremlin to blame its critics when Navalny was due to go on trial soon for extremism.

Navalny has been in jail ever since he returned to Russia from Germany in January 2021. He survived a nerve agent attack in Russia in August 2020, which was blamed on Russian FSB security service agents.

Foundation head Ivan Zhdanov said everything pointed to FSB agents themselves. "Naturally we have nothing to do with this," he said, adding that Russia needed an external enemy in the form of Ukraine and a domestic one in Navalny's team.

Ms Trepova was detained in a St Petersburg flat owned by a friend of her husband's, Russian reports said.

On the day of Russia's full-scale invasion last year she was reportedly detained for a number of days for taking part in an anti-war protest.

The cafe, Street Food Bar No 1 near the River Neva, was once owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin - who runs Russia's notorious Wagner mercenary group which has taken part in much of the fighting in Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.

Prigozhin said he had handed it over to Cyber Front Z, a group that calls itself "Russia's information troops" and said it had hired out the cafe for the evening.

Prigozhin paid tribute to Tatarsky in a late-night video which he declared was filmed from the town hall in Bakhmut.

He displayed a flag which he said had the words "in good memory of Vladlen Tatarsky".

On Monday, Tatarsky was awarded the posthumous Order of Courage by President Vladimir Putin.

link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65161095