Daria Trepova was sentenced to 27 years in prison for the murder of Russian blogger Vladlen Tatarsky last April in a cafe.

Tatarsky was killed by a bomb carrying a statuette given to him by Trepova, as the blogger was about to give a speech in St. Petersburg. The explosion injured dozens. also.

Trepova, 26, denied the accusations, saying she thought the statuette contained a listening device. He said he acted at the behest of a Ukrainian contact and that he had been set up.

The sentence is one of the harshest ever imposed on a woman in Russian history.

Trepova was accused of “terrorist act carried out by an organized group causing intentional death” and “illegal possession of explosive devices by an organized group”.

The moment when Daria takes the statuette to the cafe

Russian investigators have accused Ukraine of being behind the attack, while Ukrainian officials have neither confirmed nor denied this.

Trepova gave evidence in court that she was following the orders of a man in Ukraine known as “Gestalt” (German for “pattern”). But his identity is not known. He said he came into contact with him through Ukraine-based journalist Roman Popkov. She is opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine and was trying to go there to work as a journalist.

Trepova said that under the instructions of “Gestalt” she won Tatarsky’s trust, introducing herself to him as an art student named Anastasia Kriulina and attending his lectures.

In March “Gestalt” sent her the statuette, she said, assuring her it contained a bug and a tracker. She had expressed concern that it might contain a bomb, he said.

Vladlen Tatarsky was a well-known blogger with more than half a million followers. Tatarsky was among those who went so far as to criticize Russian authorities, blaming the military and even President Vladimir Putin for battlefield failures. However, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Courage by Vladimir Putin.