Vladlen Tatarsky, a well-known pro-Russian military blogger, was killed in a St. Petersburg café explosion on Sunday, as reported by Russian media. Tatarsky, who supported Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, was attending an event at the café when the incident occurred.
Russian media sources indicate that a woman presented Tatarsky with a figurine during the event, which exploded shortly after, resulting in his death and injuring 15 others. Witnesses told RIA, a Russian news outlet, that Tatarsky seemed to recognize the woman who handed him the gift. The unidentified woman is now on a wanted list.
Tatarsky had visited the front lines of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict multiple times and had even been to the Kremlin in 2022. He recorded a video discussing Russia's right to conquest, saying, "We will defeat everyone, we will kill everyone, we will rob everyone as necessary. Just as we like it," as quoted by the BBC.
With a following of around 500,000 on the Telegram social media platform, Tatarsky had gained considerable popularity. The group Cyber Front Z had rented the café for the event and subsequently released a statement regarding the explosion on their Telegram account, according to the BBC.
The statement read: "There was a terrorist attack. We took certain security measures but unfortunately they were not enough. Condolences to everyone who knew the excellent war correspondent and our friend Vladlen Tatarsky."
