A pro-war Russian military blogger died Sunday in a café explosion in St Petersburg — after he was presented with a bomb disguised as a gift.
Vladlen Tatarsky, 40, an ultra-nationalist and anti-Ukraine propagandist, was giving a talk about his frontline reporting at the Street Food Bar No. 1 in the country’s second-largest city when he was killed, according to The Telegraph.
A woman presented him with a statuette in a box that apparently exploded, according to Russian media and military bloggers.
Haunting video shared by a Ukrainian journalist shows the moment the prominent blogger was presented with the figurine just minutes before the blast.
Tatarsky can be seen proudly accepting the gift as the audience applauded.
A total of 25 people were injured in the attack and 19 were recovering at a hospital, according to the regional governor, Alexander Beglov.
The patriotic Russian group that hosted the event said the attack was targeted and they tried to prevent and violence.
“There was a terrorist attack,” the group, Cyber Front Z, posted on its own Telegram account, according to the BBC. “We took certain security measures but unfortunately they were not enough.”
The group added: “Condolences to everyone who knew the excellent war correspondent and our friend Vladlen Tatarsky.”
Video of the blast shows the windows of the building blowing out, narrowly missing cars driving by.
Vladlen Tatarsky, an ultra-nationalist Russian blogger, was killed in an explosion in St. Petersburg on Sunday. Vladlen Tatarsky / VKTatarsky – whose real name was Maxim Fomin – regularly reported from Ukraine. He’d gathered more than 560,000 followers on his Telegram messaging account and was known for his blustery, pro-war rhetoric.
The patriotic Russian group that hosted the event said it had security protocols, but “regrettably, they proved insufficient.”
Street Food Bar No. 1 was badly damaged in the explosion, which wounded more than two dozen others. ANATOLY MALTSEV/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Vladlen Tatarsky speaking just before an explosion ripped through the café, killing him. REN TVRussian authorities said they’d opened a murder investigation as a result of the killing.
The ministry said the event’s attendees were being checked for involvement.
Tatarsky was from Makiivka near Donetsk in Ukraine, according to the New York Times. But he thought of himself as Russian, and was a leading figure in a group of bloggers who supported Moscow’s invasion of its smaller neighbor, the Times said.
He’d also called to eliminate Ukraine as a state, the paper said.
Tatarsky was well-known as a pro-war Russian writer who supported ending the Ukrainian state by any means necessary. via REUTERS
Tatarsky filed a number of reports from Ukraine, where he was born. Vladlen Tatarsky / VK
Russian authorities have opened a murder investigation as a result of the explosion. ANATOLY MALTSEV/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock“We need to end this state sooner or later,” Mr. Tatarsky said Saturday in his latest video, according to the Times. “This needs to be our policy.”
The blast also damaged the building, NBC News said.
With Post wires
