St Petersburg Blast Kills Russian Blogger, Injures 32 More

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Image copyright: AP Photos [via AP News]

The Facts

  • A blast in a St Petersburg café on Sunday killed a prominent Russian military blogger and injured 32 other civilians — 10 of whom remain in serious condition, Russian authorities said on Monday.

  • Russian officials also confirmed that they arrested Darya Trepova on Monday — a St Petersburg resident wanted in connection with the blast after she was seen handing a figurine (the source of the blast) to Vladlen Tatarsky moments before it detonated and took his life. Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, had more than 560K followers on Telegram and was one of the country’s most influential military bloggers.

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The Spin

Anti-Russia narrative

The murder of the Russian military blogger took place inside a café owned by Wagner PMC head Yevgeny Prigozhin. This was likely intended as a warning to Prigozhin, who has questioned the Kremlin's talking points on Ukraine, and was part of an effort by Russian authorities to consolidate control of the information space.

Ukrainska Pravda

Pro-Russia narrative

This was a despicable act of terrorism that resulted in the death of one person and injured 30 more. Russia's National Antiterrorism Committee is still investigating the crime and it remains too early to identify the motive. However, there are signs that Ukraine's Security Service may have had a hand to play.

TASS

Metaculus Prediction

Establishment split

CRITICAL

PRO

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