Russia's Investigative Committee have released footage of Darya Trepova, a woman suspected of involvement in a St Petersburg cafe blast which killed prominent Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky.
Well-known as a cheerleader for Russia's military invention in Ukraine, Tatarsky was killed on Sunday in what appeared to be the second assassination on Russian soil of a figure closely associated with the conflict.
Russian investigators said they had arrested 26-year-old Ms Trepova, whom they said was suspected of bringing the explosives into the St Petersburg cafe.
In a video earlier published by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ms Trepova says she had been detained for "being at the place where Vladlen Tatarsky was killed".
Ms Trepova is a Russian citizen who had previously been detained for protesting against the Russian actions in Ukraine, the state news agency TASS said.
Tatarsky, who had filed regular reports from the front lines in Ukraine, was the pen name for Maxim Fomin.
He had accumulated more than 560,000 followers on his Telegram messaging app channel.
Investigators believe that the bomb was hidden in a bust of the blogger that the suspect had given to him as a gift just before the explosion.
In the video, Ms Trepova told a police officer that she brought the statuette to the cafe.
When asked who gave it to her, she said she would explain it later.
The circumstances under which Ms Trepova spoke were unclear, including whether she was under duress.
Over 30 people were wounded by the blast, and 10 of them remain in grave condition, according to the authorities.
Witness says people ran in panic
A patriotic Russian group that organised the event said it had taken security precautions but acknowledged that those measures "proved insufficient".
A witness said that a woman who identified herself as Nastya asked questions and exchanged remarks with Tatarsky during the discussion.
The witness, Alisa Smotrova, quoted Nastya as saying she had made a bust of the blogger but that guards asked her to leave it at the door, suspecting it could be a bomb.
Nastya and Tatarsky joked and laughed.
She then went to the door, grabbed the bust and presented it to Tatarsky.
He reportedly put the bust on a nearby table and the explosion followed.
Ms Smotrova described people running in panic, some hurt by shattered glass and covered in blood.
Russia blames Ukraine for bomb
On Monday, Russian authorities blamed Ukrainian intelligence agencies for orchestrating the bombing that killed Tatarsky.
Ukrainian authorities did not directly respond to the accusation, but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in reference to the attack that he doesn't think about events in Russia, and a senior Ukrainian official earlier described the bombing as part of Russia's internal turmoil.
The National Anti-Terrorist Committee, which coordinates counter-terrorism operations, said the bombing was "planned by Ukrainian special services", noting Ms Trepova was an "active supporter" of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Navalny, the Kremlin's fiercest foe who had exposed official corruption and organised massive anti-government protests, is serving a nine-year fraud sentence that he has denounced as a political vendetta.
Navalny associate Ivan Zhdanov warned that authorities could use the claim of involvement by political opponents as a pretext to extend his prison term.
He also charged that Russian security agencies could be behind the explosion to cast Navalny's supporters as an "internal enemy".
Military bloggers and patriotic commentators compared the bombing to the August 2022 assassination of nationalist TV commentator Darya Dugina, who was killed when a remote-controlled explosive planted in her SUV blew up as she drove on the outskirts of Moscow.
Russian authorities blamed Ukraine’s military intelligence for Dugina’s death, but Kyiv denied involvement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the attacks on Dugina and Tatarsky proved that Moscow was justified in launching what it describes as "the special military operation" in Ukraine.
ABC/wires
