Vladlen Tatarsky: The death of a pro-Kremlin blogger is being probed

The killing of Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky is being investigated as a "high-profile murder", authorities have said. Tatarsky, a vocal supporter of Russia's war in Ukraine, died in an explosion at a St Petersburg cafe on Sunday evening. Twenty-four others were taken to hospital and six were in critical condition. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack, but Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak blamed the blast on a Russian "internal political fight". The cafe targeted was previously owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia's notorious Wagner mercenary group.

Tatarsky had more than 500,000 followers on Telegram, where he criticised aspects of the Russian campaign in Ukraine. Cyber Front Z, a group calling itself "Russia's information troops" on Telegram, hired out the cafe for the evening. Last August, a car bomb attack near Moscow killed Darya Dugina, a journalist and prominent supporter of the Russian military. Vladlen Tatarsky had joined the Russian separatist forces in 2014, when they seized a swathe of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Tatarsky returned to combat and commented on the war on social media and Russian state media.

Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Tatarsky was "dangerous" for Ukraine but bravely went on until the end, fulfilling his duty. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak claimed Russian political infighting was on the rise, adding the deadly explosion showed domestic terrorism was breaking out.