Russian investigators on Tuesday formally charged Darya Trepova, a 26-year-old woman, with terrorism over the killing of the influential pro-war military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a bomb blast in St Petersburg.
The Russian woman has appeared in court and charged with terrorism over the killing of war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky on Sunday.
She had been detained after being arrested by the FSB and Investigative Committee yesterday.
Ahead of her detention, reports suggested she had been ‘on the run’, and pro-state Shot media said her first words upon being held by the authorities were, ‘I was set up. I was just being used’.
Footage from a street in Russia’s second-largest city allegedly shows Trepova, 26, carrying a box towards the cafe where the explosion later happened.
Tatarsky, who had more than 560,000 followers on Telegram and was one of the most prominent bloggers reporting on the conflict in Ukraine, is said to have been handed a gold bust by a woman.
Russian news reports suggest the statuette depicted Tatarsky himself, and hid the bomb inside.
Authorities said 10 of the 32 people who were injured in the blast are in a critical condition.
Talking to Russian site SVTV News, Trepova’s husband Dmitry Rylov acknowledged she was against the war in Ukraine but said ‘she would never kill’ and that she was ‘framed’.
He is reported to have said: ‘I am 100% sure that she would never have agreed to such a thing if she had known.’
A video appearing to show Trepova confessing was released by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, but the circumstances in which it was filmed are unknown.
Her flat has been searched and some reports say her mother was arrested.
A second suspect was earlier named as Maria Yarun, 40, who was born in Ukraine and is said to be in hospital in St Petersburg.
