A RUSSIAN student accused of blowing up a pro-Putin propagandist has been sentenced to 27 years in a penal colony.
Daria Trepova, 26, was convicted today of assassinating war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in April after presenting him with a bomb hidden in a gift.
On April 2, 2023, Tatarsky, 40, was leading a discussion at a St Petersburg cafe in front of around 100 people when the blast tore through the place, killing him instantly and injuring 30 others.
The military blogger had been mysteriously presented with a lethal gold-coloured figurine by Trepova at the event only moments earlier.
Russia has accused Ukraine’s secret services of orchestrating the assassination.
Footage captured Trepova strolling past the cafe while clutching a large cardboard box shortly before the explosion, believed to be filled with a TNT bomb.
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Authorities named Trepova as the culprit and arrested her less than 24 hours after the blast, charging her with terrorism and other offences.
Prosecutors say she knowingly gave Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin, a device that had been rigged with explosives.
However, she has denied knowing that she was carrying a bomb and instead said she believed it was a listening device.
She also said she was acting under orders from her handler in Ukraine and was motivated by her opposition to Russia’s military offensive on Ukraine.
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She told the courtroom yesterday: “I thought there was a wiretap in the figurine, not a bomb.
“My conscience is clear. I was basically sent to my death with a bomb [by Ukrainian handlers].”
“I am very pained and ashamed that my naivety and gullibility led to such catastrophic consequences,” she told victims and their relatives in court, adding that she had been set up.
The art student, from St Petersburg, is said to have previously been detained for taking part in anti-war rallies.
Tatarsky was an influential military blogger, one of the most prominent among a group of hardline correspondents that have gained huge followings since Russia launched its offensive.
Vladimir Putin posthumously bestowed a top award, the Order of Courage, on Tatarsky, citing his “courage and bravery shown during professional duty”.
Prosecutors had asked the court earlier this week to find Trepova guilty and sentence her to 28 years in a general-security prison colony with a fine of 800,000 rubles (£7,000).”
Today, she was sentenced to 27 years – three years off the maximum sentence for committing acts of terrorism, trafficking explosives and forging documents.
The jailed alleged assassin’s friend, Dmitry Kasintsev, who harboured her in his flat after the bombing was sentenced to one year and nine months for concealing a serious crime.
Trepova’s boyfriend Dmitry Rylov – also in his 20s and a member of the so-called Russian Liberation Army – has declared she was “set up.”
He is also wanted by the secret services and has been detained at anti-war protests with his girlfriend.
Rylov insisted Trepova must have “completely misunderstood the purpose” of the statue given to Tatarsky.
He said: “I believe that my wife was set up.
“I am in full confidence that she would never be able to do something like that on her own volition.
“Yes, with Daria we really do not support the war in Ukraine, but we believe that such actions are unacceptable.
“I am 100 percent sure that she would never have agreed to such a thing if she had known.”
But Russia released a supposed confession video showing the blonde, with cropped hair, admitting her role in the bomb plot.
When asked to explain why she is being detained, Trepova says: “I’d put it this way, for being at the assassination side of Vladlen Tatarsky.
“I brought there the statuette that exploded.”
She was then pressed to reveal who supplied her with the devastating explosive, to which she replied: “Can I tell you later?”
Moscow has accused Ukraine of staging several attacks and assassinations inside Russia, sometimes also blaming Kyiv’s Western allies or the domestic opposition.
They included the car bomb that killed Dugina and another blast that targeted pro-Kremlin writer Zakhar Prilepin and killed his assistant.
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Kyiv denied involvement in those but has appeared to revel in the spate of assassinations and attacks on high-profile backers of Moscow’s offensive.
Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said last year that the assassination of Tatarsky was the result of infighting in Russia.
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