St. Petersburg
Wagner boss sees radicals behind attack on bloggers
Russian investigators and police officers stand at the scene of the crime in Saint Petersburg after the explosion. photo
© —/AP/dpa
The Russian war blogger Vladlen Tatarski was the victim of an explosive device. Wagner boss Prigozhin doubts that Ukraine could be behind the attack.
The head of the Russian private army Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, sees a group of radicals behind the assassination attempt on military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in St. Petersburg. “I would not blame the regime in Kiev for these actions,” Prigozhin said on Monday.
Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, was killed in an explosion in a Prigozhin cafe. More than 30 people were injured. The assassination triggered horror in Russia’s power apparatus.
A woman was arrested. According to published videos, she presented a bust to the 41-year-old propagandist loyal to the Kremlin in the café on Sunday, which exploded a little later.
Russian flag hoisted in Bakhmut
Prigozhin praised the blogger as a patriot and dedicated an event to him in the embattled city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. There he had a Russian flag hoisted on the administration building – with Tatarski’s name on the fabric. The Wagner boss claimed that Bachmut was taken. The capture of the administrative center is “legal” proof that Ukraine no longer has control over the city. The Ukrainian leadership has always described the situation in Bakhmut as difficult, but has also emphasized that it will hold onto the strategically important location. Neither Kiev nor the Russian military leadership in Moscow have confirmed a case of Bakhmut.
Prigozhin had expressed his dismay at the attack in the café he had given to the nationalist movement Cyber Front Z for online war propaganda. The Wagner boss said of the perpetrators behind the attack: “I think that a radical group is acting that should hardly have any connection to the government (in Kiev)”. The Russian authorities have not yet commented on the background.
Prigozhin also recalled the death of propagandist Darya Dugina, who was killed in a car explosion near Moscow last year. The murder of Tatarski is comparable. Like Tatarsky, the daughter of ultra-nationalist ideologist Alexander Dugin was an ardent supporter of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.