Hunt for woman who handled bomb minutes before cafe explosion killed blogger
Russian law enforcement have been desperately seeking female suspects believed to be involved in the assassination of war propagandist Vladlen Tatarsky.
The 40-year-old war reporter with 600,000 followers died when a device, he was given in a St Petersburg cafe, hidden in a statuette of himself exploded.
A total of 32 were wounded in the blast with eight in a serious condition in hospital.
Two female suspects have been identified in Russian reports — one of whom is is , 26, who appears to be on the run.
A video is believed to show her walking to the cafe carrying what may have been the statuette loaded with explosives.
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Her boyfriend is reported to be Dmitry Rylov — also in his 20s and a member of the so-called Russian Liberation Army.
Daria Trepova, 26, who appears to be on the run (Social media/e2w)He is also wanted by the secret services.
The second woman was named as 40-year-old Maria Yarun. Some reports say she is in hospital in St Petersburg after the blast and was born in Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine.
Both Trepova and Rylov had been detained at anti-war rallies in Russia.
Izvestia reported that Daria had a ticket for a flight from Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg last night, but she did not show up for it.
A woman, believed to be Trepova, filmed carrying the box on the way to the cafe in St Petersburg (Social media/e2w)The direction of the flight was not reported but there were suggestions she is trying to reach Georgia via Turkey.
Pictures indicate she gave the mini statue to Tatarsky and he asked her to sit next to him.
A participant said the images “show the moment after the young woman gave him the bust and started walking back to her seat. Vladlen stopped her, and asked her to sit next to him.
Vladlen Tatarsky died in the blast (Sky news)“She said she was shy, but then she went to sit close, as we can see on the second picture.”
Her flat was searched and some reports said her mother was arrested.
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News outlet Fontanka said: “Daria the suspect was not found there. The security forces took the girl's mother out of the front door.
“She was taken to the police station. The procedural status of the woman is not clear.”
A police officer stands guard at the scene of an explosion at the 'Street bar' cafe in St. Petersburg (ANATOLY MALTSEV/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)A report by Telegram channel VCK-OGPU claimed it had access to her private web exchanges with a friend in a secret web chat.
This suggested she had come to St Petersburg from Moscow late last week and intended to fly abroad - to Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, via Istanbul.
A former shop worker in St Petersburg, she had breakfast with her friend yesterday, it was reported.
Video shows the moment pro-Putin war propagandist Vladlen Tatarsky was handed a statuette (centre)After the explosion she messaged her friend to say: "I could have died there, I'd rather have died there, I was set up”.
She then changed the settings on her account for the first time in seven years.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin admitted he had owned the cafe where the explosion killed Tatarsky.
“I have indeed passed the cafe to a patriotic movement called Cyber Front Z,” he said.
He continued: "They were doing various seminars there. It is indeed similar to the murder of Darya Dugina [daughter of a Putin ideologue who was killed aged 29 last year in a car explosion].
Russian police's arrest warrant for Trepova (MIA Russia/e2w)“I would not blame the Kyiv regime for it. I think it was a group of [Ukrainian] right wing radicals who did it, which is unlikely to be linked to the government.”
Police told RBC media that “the explosion was at a height of 60 centimetres from the floor.”
One report said that security in the cafe had stopped Trepova bringing the statuette into the meeting because it was feared to be an explosive.
Maria Yarun is also suspected to be involved in the blast (Social media/e2w)A witness said: “The girl who brought the figurine was sitting a little further away from me, and when she started talking about all this, she said that they didn’t let her in at the entrance.
“She said they had said ‘there could be a bomb’. She said exactly that. She literally asked [Tatarsky] for permission: ‘Allow me to bring it in anyway?’
Russian blogger Vladlen Tatarsky speaks during a party in front of projection of an image of him, before the explosion (Uncredited/AP/REX/Shutterstock)“And Vladlen says: ‘Bring in it….we will check if there is something inside.’ Those were his words.”
A video shows Tatarsky vowing the destruction of Ukraine.
“We'll conquer everyone, we'll kill everyone,” he said. "We'll loot whoever we need to, and everything will be just as we like it.”
Some Russian outlets immediately blamed the Ukraine authorities for the blast but it is unclear for now if this was the case.
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