a bomb attack kills Russian journalist Maxim Fomin / Vladlen Tatarsky
On April 2, 2023, during a private event, an improvised explosive device (IED) detonates inside the Street Food Bar, that Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner private military company (PMC), is owning. Journalist Maxim Fomin is killed, 42 other victims are injured. Known as Vladlen Tatarsky, he was running since 2017 a Telegram channel dedicated to the war in Donbass, was gathering more than 550,000 subscribers
Maxim Fomin has met journalist Daria Dugin / Platanova, whom the Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) has assassinated in Moscow on August 20, 2022
Ukrainian nationalists are joking about the deaths of both journalists
A woman may have carried the bomb. A bust, the effigy of the victim, was concealing the IED
The investigators are looking for a couple from Saint Petersburg, Daria Trepova and her husband, Dmitry Rylov, who is member of the Libertarian Party of Russia (LPR)
The police is raiding and searching several places. Relatives are questioned but the couple has not been yet found in the evening. Come on guys, the first 24 hours are the most decisive in a criminal investigation.
Rylov is already living abroad. Trepova has previously bought an air ticket for a flight in the evening of April 2, from Pulkovo airport to Uzbekistan, but did not come to check-in.
In tribute in the night to Maxim Fomin, Wagner fighters seize in Bakhmut the ruins of the administrative building, where they raise their flag
- April 3, 2023
Daria Trepova is arrested in the morning, in an apartment she is renting only one km from the cafe. She was previously living in Moscow, came to Saint Petersburg late March, was receiving money and missions from Ukraine. One was to bring the bust to the cafe. She tells that her correspondents were journalists
That flibbertigibbet was a perfect target for the GUR. She is lucky not to have been eliminated after the bomb attack
On the front line, the Russian servicemen have already achieved the investigation
Trepova tells that her handler was Roman Popkov, Russian opponent in exile, former journalist for Novaya Gazeta [New Newspaper] and MBKh Media (Mikhail Khodorkovsky)
She was aware that she was working for the GUR, but says she was told that the bust was containing a bugging device. She has indeed carried an infiltration operation under a pseudonym, was running on social networks since December 2022 a channel in support to the special military operation and Fomin seemed to already know her. She tells that in her mind, the goal was the recruitment of the victim. How could she believe such an incredible tale ? The facts are the bomb did not shred her but on the other hand, she did not manage to flee abroad.
New videos are released. One is showing the moment when Maxim Fomin took delivery of the bust and Daria Trepova declined to seat aside him. She was present until the end. One question is raising, how was the explosion triggered ? I guess remotely, by somebody else, further in the restaurant.
In the evening, Trepova is transferred to Moscow.
- April 4, 2023
New information are published. Until the bomb attack, Daria Petrova was an apprentice, whose GUR was assessing the reliability. Her first missions were to meet Maxim Fomin, to carry out photo reports… etc Her posts on social networks have openly demonstrated such activities. She received 20,000 rubles ($250) for each task. Since the beginning of her internship, her handlers were promising that she would become editor-in-chief of a publication in Kiev. The booked flight to Uzbekistan, in the evening of April 2, was a supposed stopover on her way to Ukraine. I guess that the GUR could have eliminated her in Uzbekistan, but when Petrova understood that she had been played, she did not go to the checkin, a flash of insight. Within intelligence agencies worldwide, MISE (money, ideology, sex, ego) is the formula for the recruitment of operatives
In Moscow, the court orders a two-month pretrial detention for the continuation of investigation. The job is just beginning. The individual who triggered the explosion is still free. And handlers like Roman Popkov are still alive in Kiev.
- April 8, 2023
Maxim Fomin is buried with military honors in Troyekurovskoye cemetery, Moscow
The GUR has manipulated her and as expected, TASS writes that Daria Petrova is now cooperating with the Russian investigators.
- April 13, 2023
The Russian counter-intelligence agency (FSB) releases new information, has identified Daria Trepova’s teammate
35-year-old Ukraine national Yuriy Denysov handed the bust to Trepova. I guess he triggered the explosion. The evidences are showing that he came to Russia, through Latvia, in February, monitored Maxim Fomin in March, flew to Turkey, via Armenia, on April 3, the day after the bomb attack
Russian media Shot publishes details and a photo, that Trepova has likely taken herself, of the bust. When she received it through mail, the day of the attack, her handler (Popkov or Denysov ? I guess the second) instructed her to remove a magnet from the bottom of the figurine. She replied later on their communication channel that she had done it
Critical now for her fate, the question is about what she knew then. Did she really believe that the bust would have concealed a bugging device ? Actually, the magnet was a safeguard. After its removal, a Ukrainian operative was able to remotely trigger the explosion.
- April 17, 2023
The forensic investigation has found out that the bust was filled with RDX, also called hexogen, a reliable and powerful military explosive, which may be mixed with plasticizer
To be followed…
Nicolas Cinquini 
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