The explosion also injured 25 people, Alexander Beglov, the governor of St Petersburg, said in a Telegram post. Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case to investigate the explosion, according to its website statement.

The improvised explosive device was the size of a bar of soap and was hidden in a statuette presented to Tatarsky, Tass said, citing an unidentified person in law enforcement. The power of the device was the equivalent of more than 200 grams of TNT, Tass reported earlier.

Vladlen Tatarsky is a pseudonym for Maxim Fomin (40), according to state-run news agency Tass.

He had become widely known since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago, and his strong pro-war stance included such goals as complete destruction of the Ukrainian state.

Tatarsky was invited to the Kremlin ceremony in September when Russia announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions.

“We will defeat everyone, we will kill everyone, we will rob everyone who needs to be robbed,” Tatarsky said in a video from the ceremony. “Everything will be the way we like it.”

Last year, Darya Dugina (29), whose father is a prominent Moscow nationalist who advocated a “Russian World” ideology to justify expansion by the Kremlin, was killed in a car bombing.