The Russian authorities detained this Monday Darya Trepovaindicated as the material author of the attack in which the Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky died in a cafe in Saint Petersburg with an explosive device.
“I brought the statuette that exploded” into the cafe, Trepova said, in a video released Monday by Russia’s Interior Ministry after her arrest. When asked by a police officer who had given her this bomb, she replied that she would explain “later”.
The National Anti-Terrorism Committee claimed that the “terrorist act” against Tatarsky was “planned by Ukrainian special services” with the participation of people who have cooperated with an anti-corruption foundation set up by imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He noted that the suspected detainee was an “active supporter” of Navalny’s group.
Trepova, of 26 years and resident in the second city of Russia, had already been in the crosshairs of the Russian authorities in February 2022when it was sentenced to 10 days of administrative arrest for an unauthorized protest against the invasion in Ukraine.
A security camera shows a woman, presumably Trepova, entering the cafe minutes before the attack.
Investigators believe the bomb was hidden in a bust of the blogger that the suspect had given him just before the explosion. Other images show her joking around the device and placing it on the table next to her just before the explosion.
According to Russian media, Trepova told investigators that she had been used as a carrier to deliver the explosive device, but that she did not know it was hidden in the bust.
A witness said security tried to stop the woman at the door due to suspicions about the package, but the woman jokingly dodged the filter and went on to hand it over to Tatarsky, a staunch Putin supporter who was leading a political gathering.
According to the part of this Monday from the Russian Ministry of Health, 10 of the 32 injured in the attack are in serious condition.
As reported by TASS, security forces searched Trepova’s home in St. Petersburg this Sunday local night, where her sister and mother were also questioned.
Trepova is married to Dmitry Rylov, who was a member of the Libertarian Party of Russia, but the movement reported that the woman was never a party member. “We do not have any information to suggest that she ever supported the Libertarian Party,” she added in a statement. Furthermore, they noted that Rylov has been residing abroad and claims not to be implicated in the incident.
In a call with journalists, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov referred to a statement by the Committee and added: “This is a terrorist act.”
“The active phase of the investigation is now underway,” he said. “We see quite strong measures to detain the suspects. Let’s be patient and wait for the next announcements from our special services, which are working on it.”
So far, no one has publicly claimed responsibility for the attack, but military bloggers and patriotic commentators immediately blamed Ukraine for the attack, comparing the attack to the murder last August of nationalist television commentator Darya Dugina, who was killed by an explosive device. remote-controlled explosive device placed in his jeep as he was driving on the outskirts of Moscow.
Russian authorities blamed Ukrainian military intelligence for Dugina’s death, but kyiv denied any involvement. Dugina’s father, Alexander Dugin, a nationalist philosopher and political theorist who strongly supports the invasion of Ukraine, hailed Tatarsky as an “immortal” hero who died to save the Russian people.
(With information from AP and Reuters)
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Source-www.infobae.com