A remote control allegedly used to detonate the bomb was reportedly found during a search of her home. Friends say she began spending more time in Crimea this spring.
It was shortly after dawn on August 13 when an explosion shattered the quiet of a residential square in Sevastopol.
The bomb, hidden inside a rubbish bin and containing an explosive charge equivalent to around 500 grams of TNT, killed Robert Shageev, deputy commander of a submarine brigade in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Shageev was also the former commander of Ukraine’s only submarine, which came under Russian control following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Hours later, Russian authorities arrested 32-year-old Margarita Reutt, who lives in Sochi. According to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), investigators found a remote control at her home that was allegedly used to detonate the device.
The security service claims Reutt confessed to the attack, saying she had been recruited by a contact linked to Ukrainian intelligence in exchange for money and documents that would allow her to leave Russia.
Reutt’s story offers a glimpse into the unusual trajectory of a Russian citizen whom Moscow now accuses of working with the enemy.
Born Margarita Yakovleva and raised in Yaroslavl, Reutt was described by childhood friends, according to the Guardian, as affectionate and sociable, but also drawn to risk. While studying management in Novosibirsk, she took part in skydiving, competed in go-karting and played water polo. She was also involved in a patriotic volunteer movement that recovered the remains of Soviet soldiers killed during the Second World War.
After graduating, she moved to Sochi, where she ran a travel agency for a time before taking a job with Vitauct, a company specialising in alternative medicine.
Colleagues described her as an “absolutely normal” woman who was interested in travel, health and animal rights. Her social media accounts showed holidays in Turkey, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Cuba. At least on the surface, there was little to suggest that she might be involved in clandestine activities.
Then, according to friends, something changed.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Reutt began expressing her opposition to the war more openly. In July 2025, she was fined for allegedly insulting the Russian armed forces while travelling on a train. The following February, she posted the results of a genetic test showing 98 per cent Soviet ancestry, accompanying them with a message saying she was “ashamed to be Russian”.
Meanwhile, she became involved in environmental initiatives. After two Russian oil tankers sank in the Black Sea in December 2024, causing a major environmental disaster, she travelled to Anapa to join volunteers cleaning heavy fuel oil, known as mazut, from the beaches.
According to people who knew her, the biggest change came this spring.
Reutt became more private. She bought a second phone, saying she needed it for work, and declined to join friends on a trip planned for the autumn. She also began spending more time in Crimea, explaining that she was travelling there to look for locations for music videos.
The Guardian notes that, based on the available evidence, it is impossible to establish when Reutt may have first come into contact with Ukrainian intelligence, or exactly what she did in Crimea before the bombing.
For her friends, it remains difficult to reconcile the woman they knew with the woman now accused of murder.
But one person who had known Reutt for 20 years remembers one characteristic above all others: determination.
“If she had a plan in mind, she would carry it through,” the person said.
Even, they added, if it involved something like this.
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