A suspect in the case has said she was recruited by a journalist linked to Ukrainian intelligence
The main suspect behind the murder of prominent Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, Darya Trepova, has allegedly admitted she was recruited by a man with ties to the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), Shot news outlet reported on Monday, citing sources. Tatarsky was killed on Sunday by a blast from an improvised explosive device.
The attack on Tatarsky was orchestrated by Roman Popkov, a former journalist with the MBKh Media outlet founded by exiled oligarch and staunch Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Trepova is reported to have said. According to the suspect, Popkov “taught her journalism” at first but then asked her to “do a task” for a “contact” of his.
Shot claimed that Popkov’s contact was an SBU agent, although his identity has not been revealed. The Russian Interior Ministry published a video earlier on Monday in which Trepova admitted to bringing the bomb camouflaged as a statuette to Tatarsky’s meeting with his followers. In the footage, Trepova also said she would “explain later” where she had obtained the figurine from.
According to Shot, Trepova brought the statuette to St. Petersburg in her car several days ago. She also claimed that her contacts tasked her with striking up a friendship with Tatarsky to later recruit him. She reportedly maintained that she was told the figurine contained a listening device.
Other news outlets reported, citing sources, that Popkov was now working for an exiled former State Duma MP, Ilya Ponomarev. Ponomarev, who currently resides in Ukraine, has repeatedly threatened to launch a terror campaign targeting Russian officials and anyone he deems to be supportive of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. The ex-MP has also claimed to have ties to what he called a guerilla movement in Russia.
Read more
Ponomarev previously alleged that this guerilla movement was behind the high-profile murder of another Russian journalist and public figure, Darya Dugina, who was killed in a car blast last year. Russian officials later claimed that Ukrainian agents were behind her murder.
Tatarsky, whose real name was Maksim Fomin, gained prominence in Russia as a military blogger after joining the Donbass militias in the wake of the Maidan coup in 2014. He served with local forces until 2019, and was placed on a blacklist by Kiev in January 2023.
