Russia has arrested a 26-year-old woman as a suspect in Sunday’s bombing in St. Petersburg. A well-known blogger who spread Russian war propaganda died in an attack in a cafe Maxim Fomin.
The captured woman is according to the Russian media (you will switch to another service) anti-war activist and feminist.
The Russian Investigative Committee has published a video in which a woman admits that she brought a small statue containing an explosive to the scene of the attack.
The surveillance camera video published by the investigative committee shows a woman carrying some kind of package to the cafe.
Russian researcher Jussi Lassila The official version of the Foreign Policy Institute is not credible. The investigation has progressed too quickly and too suitable video material has been found to support it.
– There are blatant features here, Lassila says in ‘s video interview.
The pattern is familiar from many previous staging operations, in which opponents of the regime have been arrested and convicted on trumped-up charges.
– Traces lead to an organized case and [turvallisuuspalvelu] in the direction of the FSB.
The Russian Telegram channel VTšK-OGPU, which is close to law enforcement, has published messages allegedly sent by a woman, in which she says she is the victim of a staged. The authenticity of these messages has not been verified.
The smearing of opponents of the war
Lassila sees that a possible staging operation has two goals.
First, the Russian regime can smear opponents of the war.
– We want to create such an image that they are not peace-loving activists and pacifists, but radical terrorists, says Lassila.
Russia is trying to label the activists as minions of Ukraine. The Russian administration has already claimed that the Ukrainian intelligence service, assisted by the opposition leader, was behind the attack To Alexei Navalny movement.
Blaming Navalny’s movement, in particular, seems to Lassila to be over the top. It has not carried out violent attacks before.
Blaming Ukraine for this attack is also unbelievable, according to Lassila. Of course, Ukraine has been suspected of striking Russian soil, but in general the strikes have caused material damage to Russia’s warfare.
Lassila also emphasizes the differences between Sunday’s bombing and the propagandist Darja Duginan between the fatal attack in August. Similarly, clear evidence of the latter did not emerge quickly.
– It’s a more obscure guy. It is possible that Ukrainian or pro-Ukrainian parties are behind it.
War bloggers to hell
According to Lassila, the second, more hidden target of the possible staging might be war bloggers.
They fanatically support the war and spread state propaganda, but some of them have also criticized Russia’s mistakes in the war.
This was also done by Maksim Fomin, alias Vladlen Tatarski, who died in the bombing. He had more than 570,000 followers on the messaging service Telegram.
Fomin criticized the military leadership, especially in the fall, when Ukraine was successful in its counterattacks, the news channel CNN tells (you switch to another service).
The attack was carried out on a cafe whose previous owner was the mercenary leader Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin. He has also criticized the Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu and the leadership of the armed forces.
– This is a reminder to war bloggers and other actors that there are certain limits within which to act, says Lassila.
According to Lassila, the Russian leadership does not want to publicly smear war bloggers who support it. However, they understand the message of the bombing.
Black painting primes elections
According to researcher Lassila, it is still too early to assess what may follow from the attack. It is possible that it can be used to justify the persecution of opponents of the war.
According to him, the smearing of war opponents can foreshadow the regional elections in the fall and the presidential elections to be held at the beginning of next year. The opposition has had no chance in the elections before, but now its activities are even more limited.
– This aims to lay the groundwork for the fact that no anti-war should be given any space, says Lassila.
Sources: Reuters, AFP