MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/. The assassination of military correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky (the pen name of Maxim Fomin) was organized by Ukrainian intelligence and its agents from among Russian opposition activists abroad, the FSB’s Public Relations Center told TASS on Thursday.
"Russia’s Federal Security Service [FSB] together with the Investigative Committee and the police have established that the April 2, 2023 terror attack in St. Petersburg that killed war correspondent Maxim Fomin (Vladlen Tatarsky) and wounded over 50 people was masterminded by Ukraine’s special services and their agents, including Russian opposition activists hiding abroad," the FSB said.
"Thus, since the start of the special military operation, the leaders of the extremist FBK Anti-Corruption Foundation (designated as a foreign agent in Russia - TASS), L. Volkov and I. Zhdanov, have repeatedly asserted the necessity of carrying out subversive activities in Russia aimed at altering its constitutional order ‘by any available means.’ Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened and is investigating criminal cases against [these individuals] as regards [their] public appeals to engage in terrorist and extremist activity (Articles 205.2 and 280 of the Russian Criminal Code), for which they have been classified as wanted," the FSB reiterated.
"As a result, on April 2, an adherent of ‘Navalny’s ideology,’ who had previously registered for the FBK’s key ‘Smart Voting’ project, Russian citizen Darya Trepova, born in 1997, committed a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg. She is being defended by attorney Daniil Berman, who has also represented L. Chanysheva, coordinator of A. Navalny’s Ufa headquarters; M. Alyokhina, a member of the Pussy Riot feminist group; and E. Gershkovich, a US journalist accused of espionage," the statement noted.
It has been established that the plot to assassinate Fomin was hatched together with Trepova by a member of a Ukrainian sabotage and terrorist group, Ukrainian citizen Yury Denisov, born in 1987, who, using an express delivery service and an intermediary, handed over an explosive device to her in Moscow, disguised as a plaster bust of the blogger. According to the FSB, in February 2023, on the instructions of Ukraine’s special services, Denisov traveled from Kiev via Latvia to Moscow, where he gathered information about Tatarsky’s lifestyle and the locations he frequented, purchasing a vehicle and renting an apartment near the blogger’s residence for this purpose. After the terror attack, on April 3 Denisov left Russia, flying to Turkey via Armenia. The process of placing him on the international wanted list has been initiated. "The investigation into the terrorist attack continues. All of its organizers and [their] accomplices will be held to account in accordance with Russian Federation law," the FSB stressed.