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Woman accused of killing pro-war blogger in café bomb attack faces 28 years in Russian prison
Russian prosecutors on Friday requested nearly three decades in prison for a woman accused of killing a pro-war blogger in a bomb blast on a Saint Petersburg cafe last April.
Vladlen Tatarsky died when a miniature statue handed to him as a gift by Darya Trepova exploded in an attack that Russia says was orchestrated by Ukrainian secret services.
“The prosecutor is asking the court to find Trepova guilty and impose a sentence of 28 years in a prison colony,” the press service for Saint Petersburg’s courts said in a statement.
Authorities named Trepova as the culprit and arrested her less than 24 hours after the blast, charging her with terrorism and other offenses.
OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP via Getty Images
Prosecutors say she knowingly gave Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin, a device that had been rigged with explosives.
Trepova, 26, admitted giving Tatarsky the object but said she believed it had contained a hidden listening device, not a bomb.
She said she was acting under orders from a man in Ukraine and was motivated by her opposition to Russia’s military offensive on Ukraine.
Tatarsky was an influential military blogger, one of the most prominent among a group of hardline correspondents that have gained huge followings since Russia launched its offensive.
With sources in the armed forces, they often publish exclusive information about the campaign ahead of government sources and Russian state media outlets, and occasionally criticise Russia’s military tactics, pushing for a more aggressive assault.
More than 30 others were injured in the blast, which tore off the facade of the Saint Petersburg cafe where Tatarsky was giving a speech on April 2, 2023.
Trepova will be sentenced at a future hearing.
“I was very scared”
In testimony this week, Trepova again denied knowing she had been recruited for an assassination mission.
She told the court she had explicitly asked her handler in Ukraine, whom she knew by the name of Gestalt, if the statute he had sent her to give to Tatarsky was a bomb.
“I was very scared and asked Gestalt: ‘Isn’t this the same as with Daria Dugina?'” she said, referring to the pro-conflict Russian nationalist who was killed in a car bombing outside Moscow in August 2022.
“He said no, it was just a wiretap and a microphone,” Trepova said.
After the explosion, Trepova said she angrily confronted Gestalt, realizing she had been set up.
AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin posthumously bestowed a top award, the Order of Courage, on Tatarsky, citing his “courage and bravery shown during professional duty.”
Moscow has accused Ukraine of staging several attacks and assassinations inside Russia, sometimes also blaming Kyiv’s Western allies or the domestic opposition.
They included the car bomb that killed Dugina and another blast that targeted pro-Kremlin writer Zakhar Prilepin and killed his assistant.
Kyiv denied involvement in those but has appeared to revel in the spate of assassinations and attacks on high-profile backers of Moscow’s offensive.
Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said last year that the assassination of Tatarsky was the result of infighting in Russia.
Prominent figures in Ukraine have also been targeted since the war began.
In November, officials said the wife of Ukraine’s intelligence chief was diagnosed with heavy metals poisoning and was undergoing treatment in a hospital. Marianna Budanova is the wife of Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency known by its local acronym GUR.
Officials told Ukrainian media last year that Budanov had survived 10 assassination attempts carried out by the FSB, the Russian state security service.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also claimed be targeted multiple times. In an interview with the British tabloid The Sun in November, Zelenskyy said that he’s survived “no fewer” than five or six assassination attempts since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
“The first one is very interesting, when it is the first time, and after that it is just like Covid,” Zelenskyy told the Sun. “First of all, people don’t know what to do with it and it’s looking very scary. And then after that, it is just intelligence sharing with you detail that one more group came to Ukraine to [attempt] this.”
U.S. and European law enforcement agencies are working together to investigate whether incendiary devices detonated in July at DHL logistics hubs in Germany and the U.K. were part of a larger operation directed by Russian Intelligence services (in particular, the GRU — Russian military intelligence), the highest level of the Russian government or by outside individuals acting in the interests of Russia, a source familiar with the matter said.
Officials are working to determine whether the larger operation was to place similar devices on aircraft servicing the U.S. and U.S. allies. The Wall Street Journal first reported the alleged plot targeting U.S. aircraft.
The 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment published at the end of October said the U.S. continues to be concerned about threats to the aviation and air cargo systems, including the “potential use of the air cargo supply chain to ship concealed dangerous and potentially deadly items.”
DHL said in a statement that it was aware “of two recent incidents involving shipments in our network. We are fully cooperating with the relevant authorities to protect our people, our network and our customers’ shipments.”
“We continually adjust our security posture as appropriate and promptly share any and all relevant information with our industry partners, to include requirements and recommendations that help them reduce risk,” the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement.
“Over the past several months, as part of a multi-layered security approach, TSA worked with industry partners to put additional security measures for U.S. aircraft operators and foreign air carriers regarding certain cargo shipments bound for the United States, in line with the 2021 TSA Air Cargo Security Roadmap,” the TSA’s statement continued.
The FBI declined to comment.
contributed to this report.
Boeing’s 33,000 unionized machinists on Wednesday voted to approve the plane manufacturer’s latest contract offer, ending a seven-week strike that had halted production of most of the company’s passenger planes.
The union said 59% voted to accept the contract. Members have the option of returning to work as soon as Wednesday, but must be back at work by Tuesday, November 12, the union said in a statement.
Union leaders had strongly urged members to ratify the latest proposal, which would boost wages by 38% over the four-year life of the contract, up from a proposed increase of 35% that members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) had rejected last month.
The revised deal also provides a $12,000 cash bonus to hourly workers and increased contributions to retirement savings plans. The enhanced offer doesn’t address a key sticking point in the contentious talks — restoration of pensions — but Boeing would raise its contributions to employee 401K plans.
Average annual pay for machinists, now $75,608, would climb to $119,309 in four years under the current offer, Boeing said.
The vote came after IAM members in September and October rejected lesser offers by the Seattle-based aerospace giant.
“In every negotiation and strike, there is a point where we have extracted everything we can in bargaining and by withholding our labor,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers stated last week in backing Boeing’s revised offer. “We are at that point now and risk a regressive or lesser offer in the future.”
Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su has played an active role in the negotiations, after recently helping to end a days-long walkout that briefly closed East and Gulf Coast ports.
The Boeing strike that began on Sept. 13 marked the latest setback for the manufacturing giant, which has been the focus of multiple federal probes after a door plug blew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. The incident revived concerns about the safety of the aircraft after two crashed within five months in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.
Boeing in July agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud for deceiving regulators who approved the 737 Max.
During the strike, Boeing was unable to produce any new 737 aircraft, which are made at the company’s assembly plants in the Seattle area. One major Boeing jet, the 787 Dreamliner, is manufactured at a nonunion factory in South Carolina.
The company last month reported a third-quarter loss of $6.1 billion.
contributed to this report.
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