According to Russian officials, a suspect in the murder of pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky has been charged with terrorism.
After being detained in St. Petersburg the day before, Darya Trepova was transported to a Moscow court on Tuesday.
She must remain in detention until 2 June, the judge decided.
But, a claim that the attack was carried out by the National Republican Army, a group that has vowed to oppose the Putin regime, was made in a statement.
Tatarsky perished on Sunday in an explosion in a St. Petersburg cafe where he was scheduled to give a speech. Almost 30 persons suffered injuries. Ms. Trepova was heard confessing that she brought a statuette to the cafe that later blew up in a video that was made public by the authorities on Monday. The video was most likely made under duress.
The 26-year-old did not, however, claim to have known there would be an explosion or to have played any other role.
She was accused of “a terrorist attack carried out by an organized group inflicting purposeful death” and “illegal possession of explosive devices by an organized group,” according to Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes into significant crimes.
The group also stated that it had proof the attack had been planned by Ukrainian security forces with assistance from the Anti-Corruption Foundation of imprisoned Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny.
The National Republican Army, however, claimed that it organized the bombing “without any support from foreign entities, much alone security services” in a statement posted on the Rospartizan (Russian Partisan) Telegram channel.
The bombing was not intended for peaceful citizens, it was added. It claimed that Darya Trepova was “innocent” and a “hostage of the system.”
The organization was one of three Russian organizations that pledged to oppose the Moscow administration in a declaration they signed in Ukraine last August.
Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian lawmaker now living in exile, tweeted in response to the group’s assertion that it was responsible for the assassination of TV pundit Darya Dugina. Last year, a vehicle bomb killed the daughter of prominent ultra-nationalist Alexander Dugin.
