(2 Apr 2023)
++PLEASE NOTE: AP IS OPERATING IN RUSSIA ACCORDING TO RUSSIAN RESTRICTIONS ON ALL REPORTING RELATED TO THE ONGOING MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
St. Petersburg, Russia - 2 April 2023
1. Various of emergency services and damaged cafe front
++NIGHT SHOTS++
2. Various of emergency personnel, vehicles with flashing lights, police and damaged cafe
STORYLINE:
An explosion tore through a cafe in Russia's second-largest city Sunday, killing a prominent military blogger who had supported the special military operation in Ukraine and was speaking at a patriotic discussion event.
Russian news reports said blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in the explosion at the Street Food Bar No. 1 cafe in St. Petersburg.
Twenty-five people were wounded, and 19 of them were hospitalized, according to the regional governor, Alexander Beglov.
Russia media and military bloggers said Tatarsky was meeting with members of the public and that a woman presented him with a box containing a statuette that apparently exploded.
A patriotic Russian group that organized the event said it had taken security precautions, but added that “regrettably, they proved insufficient.”
The reports did not mention any claim of responsibility. The Interior Ministry said everyone at the cafe at the time of the blast was being “checked for involvement.”
Since the fighting in Ukraine began on Feb. 24, 2022, various fires, explosions and apparent assassinations have occurred in Russia without any clear connection to the conflict.
Tatarsky had filed regular reports from Ukraine.
Tatarsky is the pen name for Maxim Fomin who had accumulated more than 560,000 followers on his Telegram messaging app channel.
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