03 April 2023 , 08:19
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A suspect in the St Petersburg bombing has been seized today by Russian authorities in an apartment in the same city.
Daria Trepova was detained by the FSB and Investigative Committee in the Russian city, according to a statement on the department's Telegram messaging app. Her mother and sister were also detained by the Russian security forces and interrogated.
She is allegedly accused of assassinating pro-Kremlin “war correspondent” Vladlen Tatarsky who was handed a statue packed with explosives on Sunday.
Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, had more than 560,000 followers on Telegram and was one of the country’s most influential military bloggers.
Trepova rented an apartment five minutes from the cafe where the explosion happened yesterday.
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Suspect Daria Trepova, 26 (Social media/e2w)
Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs shows Darya Trepova (RUSSIAN INTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)"Daria Trepova is detained on suspicion of involvement in an explosion in a cafe in St Petersburg by the Russian Investigative Committee in cooperation with the operational services," said a statement from the committee.
More than 30 people were wounded in the blast, according to Russia’s health ministry.
The RIA news outlet has said a bomb was hidden in a statue given to him as a present in a box during a public meeting.
Suspect Daria Trepova, 26, filmed carrying the box on the way to the cafe in St Petersburg (Social media/e2w)Mash, a Telegram channel with links to Russian law enforcement, posted a video that appeared to show him being handed a statue. It said the explosion happened minutes later.
In remarks recorded on video, a witness said that a woman who identified herself as Nastya asked questions and exchanged remarks with Tatarsky at the event.
The witness, Alisa Smotrova, quoted Nastya as saying she had made a bust of the blogger but that security guards asked her to leave it at the door, suspecting it could be a bomb.
The cafe was destroyed in the explosion (ANATOLY MALTSEV/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)Nastya and Tatarsky joked and laughed. She then went to the door, grabbed the bust and presented it to Tatarsky.
It has been reported that Trepova and her husband Dmitry Trepov were arrested at an anti-war rally in February 2022.
She is also on the lists of FBK [Foundation for combating corruption] and Navalny [Alexei Navalny is a Russian opposition leader] supporters.
Vladlen Tatarsky died in the blast (Sky news)According to the VChK OGPU telegram channel, the woman studied at the Faculty of Economics at the University of State of St Petersburg.
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A new picture shows Trepova in her rented flat likely handcuffed to a radiator. While other outlets say she may not have known the box contained explosives.
Her husband claims his wife was “set up” and also denied having anything to do with the bombing. “I think my wife was framed."
Media outlet Mash reported that “shortly before the tragedy, Daria told her friends that she had found a job, allegedly with some Ukrainian journalists.“
Daria Trepova was detained by the FSB and Investigative Committee in St Petersburg (MIA Russia/e2w)She received assignments from Ukraine for which she received money transfers.
“According to Trepova’s entourage, the assignments were mainly connected with the transfer of parcels in hand - including handing over the box with the sculpture to Vladlen Tatarsky at his lecture on April 2.”
Others suggest there must have been an accomplice to activate the bomb at the moment when it would harm Tatarsky.
The TNT was hidden inside the little statueA video shows her under interrogation for the murder and she tells the officer she will reveal "later" who told her to give the statuette to Tatarsky.
If Tatarsky was deliberately targeted, his death will be the second killing on Russian territory of a prominent pro-war figure.
Last August, Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian fascist, was killed when a bomb blew up the car she was driving.
Russia has accused Ukraine’s intelligence services of carrying out the killing but Ukraine denies involvement.