Darya Trepova was taken into custody in St Petersburg and was brought to court in Moscow on Tuesday, where prosecutors asked the court for her to remain in detention.
Tatarsky, who was attending an event in a café, was killed in a blast on Sunday, while over 30 people were injured. According to the authorities, Trepova admitted in a video that she brought a statuette to the café, which later exploded, but she didn’t know that it would explode, nor did she admit any further role.
The Investigative Committee of Russia, which investigates major crime, stated that Trepova had been charged with “a terrorist act carried out by an organised group causing intentional death” and the “illegal possession of explosive devices by an organized group”. The committee also noted that the attack was organised by Ukrainian security services, with the assistance of Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation. However, Kyiv presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak disputes this and sees the blast as part of an internal political fight in Russia.
Tatarsky was a well-known blogger with over half a million followers, and he had a criminal record. Born in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Tatarsky had previously served time in jail for armed robbery and then joined Russian-backed separatists. He was part of a pro-Kremlin military blogger community that has gained a relatively high-profile role since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
Even though Tatarsky criticised the Russian authorities and President Vladimir Putin for setbacks on the battlefield, he was awarded the posthumous Order of Courage by Putin on Monday.
