Putin blogger who was blown up by a bomb is laid to rest

Putin blogger who was blown up by a bomb hidden in golden statue is laid to rest with a decorated sledgehammer from his fans in Russia’s bloodthirsty Wagner private army

• Vladlen Tatarsky was laid to rest today, after being killed in a hidden bomb attack
• Russia’s most pro-war figures gathered to pay tribute to the Russian blogger
• The pro-Putin propagandist, 40, advocated for all Ukrainians to be murdered

Putin propagandist Vladlen Tatarsky was laid to rest today, after being killed in a hidden bomb attack.

Russia’s most pro-war figures gathered this morning to pay tribute to Mr Tatarsky – the 40-year-old blogger who advocated for all Ukrainians to be murdered.

Beside his coffin lay a sinister decorated sledgehammer presented by the Wagner private army, which he backed.

Sledgehammers have been used by the group for extrajudicial killings of captured defectors from Putin’s war in Ukraine.

He was also buried with military honours as part of the funeral held amid tightened security measures at Troyekurovskoye necropolis in Russia’s capital.

Russia’s most pro-war figures gathered this morning to pay tribute to the pro-Putin blogger

Beside his coffin lay a sinisterly decorated sledgehammer presented by the Wagner private army. The have been used by the group for extrajudicial killings of captured defectors

READ MORE: Female ‘assassin’ who ‘killed Putin blogger with statue bomb in St Petersburg cafe’ is jailed for two months – and faces decades in prison if convicted of terrorism 

Daria Trepova (pictured at court) has been charged with terrorism over the blast that killed Russian blogger Vladlen Tatarsky

Tatarsky – also known as Maxim Fomin – was a leading advocate of the war with 600,000 social media followers.

One mourner today was Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the pro-Putin Wagner private military force.

‘Today I would like to say thank you to Vladlen Tatarsky on behalf of myself and the fighters of Wagner,’ he said.

‘Tatarsky did much to enable us to go to victory and destroy the enemy.’

It is unclear what ‘victory’ he meant with Russia failing to make major military gains.

‘Thank him for this, we will always remember him,’ said Prigozhin, a close Putin ally who has also criticised the dictator’s leading commanders.

While Tatarsky had been a pro-war fanatic, he had also criticised Putin’s commanders – leading to speculation he could have been assassinated by the state. 

His funeral came amid claims from a KGB and FSB veteran that Daria Trepova – who handed him a golden statue with a bomb hidden inside – was supposed to have died too.

The 26-year-old has been detained and could face 20 years in jail on terrorism charges.

This is despite one senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev saying that she was likely just used as a ‘dumb-headed’ accessory who did not know explosives were inside.

Pictured: Vladlen Tatarsky, 40, seen moments before the explosion looking at the statue

Vladlen Tatarsky (pictured) was laid to rest today, after being killed in a hidden bomb attack

Daria Trepova (pictured) handed Tatarsky the golden statue with a bomb hidden inside

A former KGB and FSB major general Alexander Mikhailov also said this, claiming she was ‘waste material’ for the perpetrators.

‘During the explosion, she was in close proximity to the bomb,’ he said.

‘There was a guarantee that she should not be left alive.

‘She did her job – she could be written off.’

Mikhailov added that young people like Trepova were ‘expendable’, and believed Tatarsky’s death was a hit operation from Ukraine. 

But for now it remains unclear who was behind the assassination. 

‘All these agents are bribed for a can of condensed milk. Real agents are expensive,’ he said. 

Although it currently remains unclear who was behind the assasination, an outfit called the National Republican Army claimed responsibility in a statement.

It read: ‘We organised and carried out an action on 2 April 2023 against a group of Z-activists and personally against the notorious warmonger and war propagandist, war criminal Maxim Fomin, known as Vladlen Tatarsky.

‘This action has been prepared and carried out by us independently, and we have no connection to and we have not received assistance from any foreign structures and especially the special services.’

Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee claimed the killing of Tatarsky had been masterminded by Ukraine’s special services with help from agents collaborating with jailed opposition leader Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation.

Daria Trepova has been detained and could face 20 years in jail on terrorism charges 

It was said that young people like Trepova were ‘expendable’ amid speculation that Tatarsky’s death resulted from a hit operation from Ukraine

The Russian Investigative Committee said Trepova acted on orders from ‘figures based in Ukraine’.

The Kremlin propagandist had been speaking at a political event at the Street Food No. 1 café when the bomb exploded, killing him and injuring more than 40.

At the time it is understood that he was handed a old-coloured statuette made to resemble him by former art student Trepova.

Medvedev blamed the Kremlin’s jailed, suppressed and exiled foes for the bomb blast.

He specifically named anti-Putin leader Alexei Navalny, 46, now jailed in Russia and seen as a political prisoner, his associate Leonid Volkov, 42, now based in the West, ex-Russian MP Ilya Ponomarev, 47, now in Ukraine, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, 59, a prominent opposition campaigner and once Russia’s wealthiest man, exiled in Britain.

Tatarsky was killed in a blast at the Street Food No. 1 cafe, located in St Petersburg city centre

In a vicious threat demanding extra-judicial killings, Medvedev said: ‘All these stinking…Navalnys, Volkovs, Ponomarevs and other Khodorkovskys have become just ordinary terrorists and murderers.

‘They voluptuously enjoy the sight of the blood of Russian citizens.

‘They flare their nostrils with excitement at the sight of wounded and mutilated bodies.

‘They devoutly swore allegiance to darkness and terror, along with the murderers of their native Kyiv Nazi regime.’

His sinister threat goes on: ‘Don’t negotiate with terrorists.

‘They are exterminated like rabid dogs with poisonous saliva flowing from their mouths.

‘No extra pompous words.

‘As soon as the opportunity arises. Even if sometimes it takes years.

‘Forgiveness is not applicable….this is what the highest justice is.’

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