Wagner chief confirms link to bombed St. Petersburg café

Evgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group private military company, has confirmed his business ties to the St. Petersburg café which was the scene of a bomb blast on Sunday. Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in the explosion, while more than 30 people were injured.

Prigozhin said he had “handed over the café” for meetings held by the Cyber Front group, which he described as a “patriotic movement.”

In a statement on Monday, the businessman agreed with comparisons between Tatarsky’s murder and the assassination of Darya Dugina, who was killed when her car was blown up last August.

Russian investigators believe Dugina’s death was the result of a plot by Ukrainian special services. Tatarsky’s murder was likewise “planned by special services of Ukraine,” the National Antiterrorism Committee stated on Monday.

Prigozhin said he believes “a group of radicals” rather than the Ukrainian government was responsible for both crimes.

Military blogger Tatarsky, whose real name was Maksim Fomin, was speaking at an event with his followers when the bomb went off. On Monday, Russian security forces detained local 26-year-old woman Darya Trepova in connection with the case. Trepova had reportedly brought a figurine with a bomb inside and presented it to Tatarsky shortly before the blast.

On Sunday, Prigozhin dedicated the raising of a flag on a key government building in the Donbass city of Artyomovsk to Tatarsky. Known as Bakhmut in Ukraine, the settlement is the scene of an intense, months-long battle featuring Wagner troops. Prigozhin said control of the city administration building meant that Artyomovsk had been “formally captured” by Russia, although in practical terms Ukrainian forces remained in the western part of the city.