Journalist Roman Popkov, who was accused by Telegram channels citing "sources" of allegedly recruiting Daria Trepova, who was detained on suspicion of the murder of propagandist Vladlen Tatarsky, denies this information. He told The Insider that evidence could have been beaten out of the girl.
“Just now I saw all these wild messages from Musorsky Telegram channels that I want to say that this is complete game and hell, and this is a lie. I know Dasha Tykovka on Twitter, she is my longtime subscriber there and on the Telegram channel, and I already forgot when we last talked. Of course, I didn’t give her any orders to blow up this devil, and I didn’t deal with this kind of operation.
As I understand it, there are enough other partisan groups in Russia that perform all this. She could not consider that I asked her to do something for someone. I am sure that the FSB, having taken a person hostage, will now beat out a variety of testimonies from her, she confesses to anything, that I controlled her, as in the song “Sorcerer” of “The King and the Jester”, that the FBK is to blame for everything, that Navalny's network is the agents of the GUR or the SBU, they will now beat anything out of it.
I urge independent human rights activists, if they still remain in Russia, to provide her with a normal lawyer. To be honest, I'm not sure that she mentioned me, and even if she did, she did it under duress. Now investigators and operatives are compiling a list of leaders of the partisan underground from the ceiling. In this list, for sure, I, FBK-shniki, Ilya Ponomarev, RDK, now they will be remembered for sure.
Of course, I am one of the hated figures in the center "E" as a supporter of Navalny, a supporter of Ponomarev, and as a pro-Ukrainian journalist, this is a matter of operational accounting. They are now working with this, taking cases off the shelf and knocking out testimony from the unfortunate Daria Trepova. I think it also played a role that we are connected with her in social networks, in the same Twitter that she used to have. Maybe it led them to my last name. But the fact that I am one of the enemies of the center "E" and the Russian Federation, and in the list of potential terrorists – 100%. For my publications and for my past, I was in prison for the fact that we fought back back in the zero years, I was detained endlessly, these conversations were conducted with me for hours in the casemates by the FSB agents. I am sure that they will now come to my mother in Bryansk, she still lives in Russia. Do you think I would do this, given that my family remained in Russia? I am not involved in the murder of Vladlen Tatarsky, unfortunately. He absolutely deserved what happened to him, but I'm not involved."
Oleg Kashin was one of the first to write about Popkov's possible involvement. After that, the Telegram channel Shot, as well as the channel of Ksenia Sobchak, reported , citing sources, that Popkov had recruited Daria Trepova, allegedly she had declared this herself. According to the comments of these channels, the journalist asked to complete the task from "an acquaintance", who turned out to be an SBU agent.
The Investigative Committee reclassified the case of the murder of military commissar Tatarsky to a more serious article – about a terrorist attack. Trepova was detained on the morning of April 3 in an apartment in St. Petersburg. According to preliminary data, the day before she visited the “creative evening” of propagandist Vladlen Tatarsky in a cafe on Universitetskaya embankment and presented him with a figurine, which exploded. Tatarsky died, more than 30 people were injured. The National Anti-Terrorism Committee reported that Tatarsky's murder was planned by the Ukrainian special services "with the involvement of agents from the FBK" Alexei Navalny.