A mystery in Russia: who blew up Vladalon Tatarsky?

The assassination of a blogger who supported the war could be Putin’s message to Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozin. The beginning of a Russian resistance movement, or another daring Ukrainian operation Russian military blogger Tatarsky was killed Sunday in St. Petersburg. He had many enemies in Ukraine and Russia, and mystery surrounds his death.

The Russian blogger who reported on the war and blamed the Russian generals for the losses in Ukraine had many enemies. He was hated by millions of Ukrainians for saying that all of Ukraine should be murdered and looted, he posted videos that upset the Russians because he mocked and attacked the Russian generals that they don’t know how to fight.

Blogger Vladlen Tatarsky also blamed the Russian government and prominent generals for the losses and called for their dismissal and prosecution. Other enemies lurking in the shadows, perhaps from his days as a bank robber in Ukraine, when he lived under the name Maxim Fomin, perhaps pro-Ukrainian dissidents within Russia, or perhaps Wagner’s enemies Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was one of Tatarsky’s few allies.

Whoever they were, on Sunday they eliminated him. A bomb hidden inside a gold statue he received in a cafe exploded at one of his lecture events in St. Petersburg, 30 people were injured and one big question remained unanswered: who killed him.

Officially, the blame was laid on 26-year-old Daria Tarpova – a well-known war resister who was photographed handing the statue to Tatarsky just before it exploded. She admitted on camera after she was arrested that she gave him the statue, although she did not admit that she knew it was a bomb and said nothing about who gave it to her.

Those who knew Terpova say she is incapable of murder and even Russia’s own investigators doubt she is the mastermind, the Daily Mail reported.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, immediate suspicion fell on Ukraine. The attack on Tatarsky is similar to the explosion that killed Daria Dogina, the daughter of pro-war propagandist Alexander Dogin, on the outskirts of Moscow last year. In both cases, the intended target was a vocal supporter of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, even if the blast intended for Dugin ended up killing his daughter instead.

In both cases, the attack was carried out by an assassin who planted explosives – in Dogina’s case, they were hidden inside a car her father was supposed to be driving. And in Dugin’s case, a CIA official said they believed the Ukrainian secret services were behind him.

If so, it makes sense that Ukraine would also be suspected of killing Tatarsky. Kiev has predictably denied any involvement – but the Ukrainians are not the only ones issuing such denials.

Prigozhin himself wrote a Telegram post in which he doubted that the “Kiev regime” was behind the killings and blamed it instead on “a group of radicals who likely have no connection to the government.” He did not say which government he was talking about: the one in Kiev, or the one in Moscow.

There are many who believe Russia itself may be responsible for the blast, seeking to silence a voice that has become increasingly critical of its mistakes on the battlefield.

Tatarsky has lashed out at almost all senior leaders, including Putin, for the way the war is being waged – and it’s no secret that the Russian leader’s critics don’t last long. But any strong military figure with easy access to explosives could be responsible. From Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.

The American think tank “Institute for the Study of War” believes that the attack served a dual purpose, both to silence Tatarsky and to send a message to his ally Prigozhin who is also sending messages that he is not happy with the generals.