Russia: 32 people were injured in an explosion in a Saint Petersburg cafe

32 people were injured in the explosion that occurred yesterday, Sunday, in a cafe in St. Petersburg, which killed the well-known Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, the RIA news agency reported.

Citing the Russian Ministry of Health, RIA reported today that 10 of the injured are in critical condition.

For its part, Russia’s Investigative Committee announced that it has launched a homicide investigation into the attack, which claimed the life of blogger Tatarsky.

A senior Russian official blamed Ukraine for the attack, without providing evidence to support his claim. An adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, on the other hand, spoke of “domestic terrorism” which is destroying Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry did not speculate on who was responsible for the attack, but denounced the West’s silence as revealing its hypocrisy in its concern for journalists.

Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, had more than 560,000 followers on Telegram and was one of the most prominent military bloggers defending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, although he often blamed senior Russian military officials.

“We will defeat everyone, kill everyone, steal from everyone who needs it. Everything will be done as we like,” he was heard saying at a ceremony held in September in the Kremlin during which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Moscow’s annexation of four regions of Ukraine.

TASS, citing an unnamed source, reported that the bomb was hidden in a small statuette given to Tatarsky during his speech at the cafe.

Telegram’s Mash channel, which is linked to Russian law enforcement, posted video showing Tatarsky being offered a soldier’s statuette. The explosion occurred a few minutes later, according to the same source.

Denis Pushilin, the pro-Russian leader of Donetsk province in eastern Ukraine, publicly said that Kiev was responsible for the attack.

“He was foully murdered. Terrorists cannot do otherwise. The Kiev regime is a terrorist regime. It must be destroyed, there is no other way to stop it,” he stressed.

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said the lack of reaction from Washington, Paris and London “speaks for itself”, given their persistent concern for the safety of journalists and freedom of expression.

“Kiev’s reaction is impressive, those who receive Western money do not in any way hide their pleasure at what happened,” he wrote on the ministry’s website.

“Mature abscess”

Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to Zelensky, tweeted that it was only a matter of time, “like breaking a ripe abscess,” before Russia was destroyed by what he called domestic terrorism.

“Spiders eat each other in a jar,” he said.

In August, Daria Dugina, daughter of the well-known Russian nationalist Alexander Dugin, was killed by a bomb explosion that had been placed in the car she was riding in.

Russia’s Federal Security Service had blamed Ukraine’s secret services for the attack, but Kiev denied any involvement.