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 in an improvised explosive device blast.
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 to “do a task” from a “contact” of his.
Popkov’s contact was an SBU agent, Shot claimed. The alleged agent’s identity has not been revealed. Earlier, the Russian Interior Ministry published a video where Trepova admitted to bringing the a bomb camouflaged as a statuette to Tatarsky’s meeting with his followers. On the video, 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 friendship with Tatarsky to later recruit him. The woman reportedly maintained she was told the figurine was containing a listening device.
Other news outlets reported, citing sources, that Popkov was now working for an exiled ex-State Duma MP, Ilya Ponomarev. Ponomarev, who currently resides in Ukraine, repeatedly threatened to launch a terror campaign targeting Russian officials and anyone he deemed to be supportive of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. The ex-MP had also claimed to have ties to what he called a guerilla movement in Russia.
Earlier, Ponomarev claimed that this guerilla movement was behind the high-profile murder of another Russian journalist and a public figure, Darya Dugina, who was killed in a car blast. The Russian officials later claimed that Ukrainian agents were behind her murder.
Tatarsky, who gained prominence in Russia as a war blogger and reporter, joined the Donbass militias in the wake of the Maidan coup in 2014 and served with the local forces until 2019. Kiev put him on a blacklist in January 2023.
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