Internal Russian conflicts escalate after the assassination of a military blogger in St. Petersburg.
War observers are demanding the death of colleagues critical of the Kremlin.
St. Petersburg - An assassination attempt on a well-known Russian military blogger escalates internal conflicts in Russia's military blogger scene.
That could be entirely in Putin's interest.
Some war observers have called for the deaths of colleagues who had criticized Putin's war in Ukraine.
On Sunday (April 2), Russian military blogger (real name Maxim Fomin), known as Vladlen Tatarsky, was killed in an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg.
More than 30 people were injured by an explosive device apparently hidden in a sculpture.
Published videos show a woman presenting the blogger with a bust, which exploded shortly after.
A 26-year-old was arrested as a suspected perpetrator.
Tatarsky had been on the stage at a public event of the group "Cyber Front Z" in the café, which according to media reports is said to belong to the head of the mercenary group Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin.
This describes itself in online networks as "Russia's information soldiers".
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Location of the explosion in a cafe on Universitetskaya Embankment in St. Petersburg,
© IMAGO / SNA
Assassination attempt on military blogger: Escalation of Russian conflicts
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharovv accused Ukraine of killing Fomin and praised Russian military bloggers for their war coverage.
Bloggers like Tatarski are "defenders of the truth," she explained in the online service
Telegram
.
He was "dangerous" to Ukraine and died "in line with his duty."
Wagner boss Prigozhin, on the other hand, suspects a group of radicals behind the assassination attempt: "I would not blame the regime in Kiev for these actions," he said on Monday.
According to the
Institute for the Study of War
(ISW), a US think tank, the assassination attempt could also be a sign of the escalation of internal Russian conflicts.
Vladimir Putin's tolerance for military bloggers close to Wagner could be exhausted and the assassination a warning to Prigozhin.
He repeatedly criticized the warfare of the Russian military in the Ukraine war and the Russian Ministry of Defense.
He is assumed to be interested in the Russian presidency.
Recently, however, he caused a stir by announcing his intention to become President of Ukraine.
The aim of the assassination could therefore be to intimidate bloggers close to Wagner.
Advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine, Mykhailo Podolyak, also tweeted
that
Tatarski's death was the result of power struggles and political competition between Russian actors.
Military blogger: "Not protected from own people in Russia"
Some bloggers consider Russian leadership to be involved in the assassination.
Military blogger Vladislav Pozdnyakov wrote on
Telegram
that he had already pointed out twice that "the best thing a Z-channel author can do now is to leave Russia and pursue his activities from abroad".
Z channels are newsgroups on Telegram supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The "Z" has become a symbol of the Ukraine war since February 2022.
"In Russia you are not protected from your own people, let alone from strangers," Pozdnyakov warned, firing against security in Russia.
Foreign agents have infiltrated “literally every institution in the Russian Federation,” he claimed.
In the end, Tatarski's assassins simply smuggled an improvised bomb into the meeting.
Pictures of the Ukraine war: great horror and small moments of happiness
Pictures of the Ukraine war: great horror and small moments of happiness
After assassination in St. Petersburg: military bloggers call for death for Putin critics
Well-known Russian war bloggers have meanwhile called for the arrest and death penalty of military bloggers who have criticized Putin's Ukraine war.
They also exposed several of their colleagues.
They accused the Russian secret service FSB and the Russian police of failing to fight critics of Putin.
For example, according to ISW
reports, they claimed
that former Donetsk People's Republic fighter Andrei Kurshin accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine using the pseudonym MoscowCalling while he was living in Moscow.
The Russian police and FSB failed to stop military bloggers like Kurshin from promoting anti-government attitudes online.
They called for the arrest and execution of other bloggers who had expressed similar views against Putin, his regime and the conduct of the war.
Splits in the military blogger scene could suit the Kremlin.
On the one hand, Putin needs the propaganda of the Onilne war correspondents, but their sometimes critical view of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian army, as well as their influence, could have become too great for him.
The demands of some bloggers could be used to justify censorship of certain bloggers who are vocally critical of Putin.
(kasa/dpa/AFP)
Rubric list image: © IMAGO / SNA
