Donetsk’s journalist killed in terrorist attack in St. Petersburg
Vladlen Tatarsky had more than half a million followers on social media and became a symbol of Russian patriotism.
Lucas Leiroz, journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant.
In yet another criminal and cowardly attack, a Russian journalist was murdered within the peaceful and demilitarized territory of the Federation. Maxim Fomin, popularly known by his alias “Vladlen Tatarsky”, a war correspondent from Donetsk, was killed in an explosion ata public cafe in St. Petersburg. Dozens of people were injured on the occasion. Russian authorities suspect that anti-Putin activists have participated in the act, which reveals that the Kiev-NATO axis is adhering to the promotion of domestic terrorism inside Russian territory.
The attack took place during an event at a public cafe in Saint Petersburg. Tatarsky was there and supposedlyreceived a gift from Daria Trepova, the main suspect in the crime and already detained by the Russian police, with a figurine in his honor which would have exploded and caused the tragedy. There are videos circulating on the internet showing the exact moment of the explosion through external cameras, revealing the scale of the attack. More than thirty people were injured, with at least ten of them hospitalized in serious condition. So far, Tatarsky himself is the only confirmed death.
Daria Trepova, 26, is a Russian citizen from Saint Petersburg and is currently seen as the responsible for the crime. According to local testimonies, she attended the event and gave the figurine to Tatarsky, having left the cafe before the detonation. Trepova is notorious for her anti-government work, being an active supporter of the “Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation”. She was previously arrested, in February 2022, for organizing a riot in St. Petersburg. Russian authorities suspect that she has acted in partnership with other domestic terrorists to carry out the attack, being, however, under direct guidance of the Ukrainian secret service agency SBU.
It is curious to note how the victims of these illegal acts are chosen. Tatarsky was not a politician, a military officer, or a high government official. He was an ordinary citizen of Donetsk who, through his pro-Russian patriotism and his information work on the conflict, gained notoriety and public respect. Tatarsky was born in Makeevka, DPR, having joined the separatist militias after the Maidan coup in 2014. He fought in reconnaissance brigades for both the DPR and RPL, but retired from military service in 2019, moving to Moscow.
Tartarsky returned to Donbass after the start of the special military operation to work as a journalist, military analyst and war correspondent, gaining great prominence in his service, with more than half a million subscribers on his Telegram channel. In addition to his analytical expertise, Tatarsky was also notorious for his strong Christian devotion, always wearing Orthodox symbols and filming videos in churches, which increased the Russian people’s respect for him.
The case is similar to the murder of Daria Dugina in August 2022. Like Daria, Tatarsky was just a journalist, with no political or military relevance. Both allegedly became targets of pro-Kiev terrorists for simply being admired by the Russian people and becoming public symbols of Russian patriotism. Something similar was also recently attempted against businessman Konstantin Malofeyev, who is also a well-known Russian patriot and Orthodox Christian, sponsor of the Patriarchate of Moscow.
There are many reasons why this happens. First, these people are usually less protected by security services and are more vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Another point is that when people who represent great symbols of the Russian people are murdered, Kiev also makes clear its pro-ethnic and cultural genocide stance, showing that it is waging a war against the entire “Russian world”, not just against the Russian state and the government.
The effects of these attacks are strong in Russian society. The victims are not only honored with posthumous awardsby the state – there is a mobilization of the population to care for the memory of the deceased. As well as happenedwith Daria’s death, when there were several public tributes, events in the Russian diaspora around the world and hundreds of young people enlisting to join forces in the special military operation, there will certainly be great popular impact due to Tatarsky’s death. When people seen as national symbols are murdered, the result is commonly not a defeat to local patriotism, but a strengthening of it. Kiev certainly knows this, but plans to continue murdering prominent Russians simply because it has a political mentality based on anti-Russian racism.
In fact, the case also shows that Kiev is willing to foment domestic terrorism in Russia, as the perpetrator of the attack was a native Russian linked to opposition groups. Considering the recent sabotage in Bryansk, organized by the same neo-Nazi militants who some days later tried to assassinate Malofeyev, it is possible to say that the tactical support to Russian native saboteurs for terrorist actions in the undisputed territory has already become official policy in Kiev which reveals Ukrainian military “despair”, since in the face of the exhaustion of regular forces, only terrorism remains as an “alternative” to continue fighting.
It remains to be seen, however, the extent of the connections surrounding these attacks. It is important to remember that Kiev is a capital occupied by the West since 2014 and that Ukrainian state agencies do not act alone in relevant actions, depending on the support of NATO’s intelligence. Most likely, there was Western involvement in Tatarsky’s death, at least at the level of organization and tactical support. And, in the same sense, as happened in the case of Dugina, when the New York Times went public accusing Kiev and denying Washington’s involvement, the most likely thing is that NATO authorities blame their proxies in the future, hoping to not suffer the consequences of possible escalations.
Ukraine acting as a Mafia