Vladlen Tatarsky Cause of Death, Age, Family, Net Worth

Vladlen Tatarsky Cause of Death, Age, Family, Net Worth – Vladlen Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Yuryevich Fomin, was a Ukrainian-born Russian military blogger, convicted bank robber, and participant in the Russo-Ukrainian War.

He was known for his hardline views and uncompromising support of the war, and was active as a propagandist for Russia and the separatist forces in Ukraine until his death in the 2023 Saint Petersburg bombing.

Fomin was born in 1982 in Makiivka, Donetsk Oblast, and held both Ukrainian and later Russian citizenship. In 2011, he was imprisoned in Ukraine for bank robbery, but when the war in Donbas broke out, Fomin saw an opportunity to escape from prison and join the military forces of the Russia-backed Donetsk People’s Republic. He was caught and imprisoned again, but was later pardoned by Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, and given the opportunity to fight against the Ukrainian army alongside the Vostok Battalion during the Donbas War.

After serving in the military, he started blogging under the pseudonym Vladlen Tatarsky, which is an allusion to both Lenin and Russian satirist Viktor Pelevin’s 1999 first novel, Generation P. The name of the protagonist in the novel is Vavilen Tatarsky, who is an advertising copywriter enlisted to write copy at an ad agency, where he adapts Western advertising to the “Russian mentality.”

Reflecting back on the Donbas War, Fomin would later state that “thousands of Russian officers” had served in the region since October 2014, contradicting the official Russian position that the Russian Federation was not involved militarily in mainland Ukraine before 2022. Tatarsky lived in Moscow from 2019 until his death in 2023.

Tatarsky was a prominent figure among the Russian military bloggers, with an extensive following of over 560,000 on Telegram. He was known for his hardline views, criticizing Russian military commanders and Vladimir Putin for being too soft in their approach. The Institute for the Study of War characterised him as a “prominent” military blogger, but not exceptionally so. While he maintained ties to the Wagner Group and its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, he did not alienate supporters of Putin.

As a blogger, Tatarsky called for more attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure which would result in more Ukrainian casualties. He regularly referred to Ukraine as a “terrorist state” and advocated for its defeat. In one infamous video, he was recorded saying, “We’ll defeat everyone, we’ll kill everyone, we’ll rob everyone we need to. Everything will be the way we like it.” The video was recorded at the Kremlin, to which Tatarsky had been invited to attend Vladimir Putin’s announcement of “partial mobilization” on 30 September 2022. Tatarsky also produced jihadist propaganda, likely also for the pro-war cause.

Due to his views and involvement in the conflict, Tatarsky was sanctioned by Ukraine. He was banned from entering the country for ten years, and any assets belonging to him that were found in Ukraine were confiscated. Despite these sanctions, Tatarsky continued to promote his views and beliefs through his blog and social media channels.

Vladlen Tatarsky Cause of Death

On 2 April 2023, Tatarsky was killed in an explosion while hosting an event at a cafe in St. Petersburg. The cafe was reportedly owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman with close ties to the Kremlin and head of the infamous paramilitary Wagner Group. The explosion killed Tatarsky and injured 24 others, six of them critically, according to Russian authorities.

Following the incident, there was speculation about who was responsible for the attack. Some blamed Ukraine for the bombing and called for retaliation, while others suggested that Ukrainian state actors were not responsible. The Institute for the Study of War assessed that the bombing may act as a warning to other Russian commentators to temper their criticism of the conduct of the war or to intimidate Wagner-aligned actors who could pose threats to Putin. It may also serve the Kremlin’s goal of controlling the information space.