Darya Trepova, the suspect in Sunday’s bombing in St. Petersburg that killed prominent war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, has been placed on the wanted list, the Russian Interior Ministry has said.
Tatarsky (real name Maksim Fomin) was hosting a live event with fans at a café in the city’s historical center, when a bomb went off, killing him and injuring over 30 people. A former fighter from Donbass, Tatarsky was extensively covering the Russia-Ukraine armed conflict on his Telegram channel.
According to police, Trepova is 26 years old. Media outlets have reported that security forces were conducting a search in her St. Petersburg apartment.
Multiple witnesses told Russian media that a young woman, who was one of the guests at Tatarsky’s event, gave him a figurine as a gift shortly before the explosion.
Trepova’s friends told news outlets that she was a medical student and worked several jobs, including as a designer and an administrator at a shop. One acquaintance told journalists that Trepova left Russia after Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine last year, and spent several months in Georgia before returning to her home country. Another friend was quoted as saying that, while meeting in Moscow last month, Trepova told her that she was planning to leave Russia and travel to Ukraine through Turkey.
News outlet RBK cited a police source as saying that Trepova exchanged messages with Tatarsky and attended other events in which he took part. The source said investigators “can’t rule out” the possibility that Trepova was unaware that the figurine she gave Tatarsky was a bomb.
According to the source, Trepova was detained in 2022 at a protest in St. Petersburg against Russia’s military operation and sentenced to ten days of administrative arrest.