Woman accused of killing Russian war blogger says handler lied about bomb

(Reuters) – A woman from Russia who is accused of assassinating a well-known pro-war blogger stated to a court on Tuesday that she believed the package she gave to him in a cafe in St. Petersburg contained a listening device, not a bomb.

Darya Trepova claimed that she was following orders from a man in Ukraine known as “Gestalt” who had been sending her money and instructions for several months before the killing of blogger Vladlen Tatarsky on April 2 last year.

Russia immediately accused Ukraine of organizing Tatarsky’s murder after the attack. Senior Ukrainian officials have neither accepted nor denied responsibility for the attack, with presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak referring to it as “internal terrorism.”

Tatarsky was killed by a bomb hidden in a statuette that Trepova handed to him in the cafe, where he was addressing an audience of up to 100 people.

Witnesses at the trial have stated that he jokingly called the figurine “Golden Vladlen” and turned it over in his hands before it exploded, killing him instantly and injuring dozens.

The identity of Gestalt remains unknown.

During her trial in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, Trepova, 26, testified that she was introduced to him by a journalist in Ukraine named Roman Popkov, whom she had connected with on Twitter. She stated that she opposed Russia’s invasion and was sympathetic to Ukraine and was looking for his help to come to Ukraine and work as a journalist herself.

Russian investigators have accused Popkov in absentia of “orchestrating the execution of a terrorist act.” He has denied any involvement.

Trepova stated that guided by Gestalt, she attended talks by Tatarsky and introduced herself to him as an art student called Anastasia Kriulina.

In March, he sent her the statuette of Tatarsky by post, with instructions to hand it to him in person. She told the court it had occurred to her then that it might be a bomb and remembered the case of Darya Dugina, a pro-war journalist who died when her car was blown up near Moscow in 2022.

She said she went ahead because “I didn’t think they could set me up like this”, and assumed the purpose of eavesdropping on Tatarsky was to find out more of what he knew about the war in Ukraine, which she opposed.

After the bomb went off, Trepova said she called Gestalt to confront him.

Trepova said that Gestalt told her she could ask questions later. When she continued to swear, he stated: ‘When you come to Ukraine and visit us, you can hit me.’ This made her very angry,” she said tearfully.

(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan; editing by Mark Heinrich)