The daughter of an influential Russian political theorist often known as “Putin’s mastermind” was killed in a car bomb attack outside Moscow, authorities said Sunday.
The Moscow branch of the Russian Investigative Committee said preliminary information indicated that TV commentator Darya Dugina, 29, was killed by an explosive device planted in the SUV she was driving on Saturday night.
There was no immediate claim of liability. But the bloodshed gave rise to suspicions that the intended target was her father, Alexander Dugin, a nationalist philosopher and writer.
Dugin is a prominent proponent of the “Russian World” concept, a spiritual and political ideology that emphasizes traditional values, the restoration of Russia’s power, and the unity of all ethnic Russians in the world. He is also a staunch supporter of sending Russian troops to Ukraine.
The explosion took place when his daughter was returning from a cultural festival she had attended with him. Russian media quoted witnesses as saying the SUV belonged to Dugin and that he had decided at the last minute to travel in another vehicle.
“An act of intimidation”
The car bombing, which is unusual in Moscow, is likely to exacerbate tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
Denis Pushilin, president of the separatist People’s Republic of Donetsk, the pro-Moscow region that is a focus of Russia’s fighting in Ukraine, blamed it on “terrorists of the Ukrainian regime, who are trying to kill Alexander Dugin.”
Investigators are seen Sunday working at the site of a suspected car bomb attack that killed Darya Dugina, daughter of ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin, in the Moscow region. (Investigative Committee of Russia/Reuters)
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, denied Ukraine’s involvement, saying: “We are not a criminal state, unlike Russia, and definitely not a terrorist state.”
Political analyst Abbas Gallyamov, a former speechwriter for Putin, called the attack “an act of intimidation” aimed at Kremlin loyalists.
For them, he said, “it is a symbolic act, which shows that the hostilities have been confidently transferred to the territory of Russia, which means that it is no longer an abstract war that is seen on television,” he said. “This is already happening in Russia. Not only is Crimea being bombed, but terrorist attacks are already taking place in the Moscow region.”
The Kremlin often echoes Dugin
While Dugin’s exact ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin are unclear, the Kremlin often echoes the rhetoric of his writings and appearances on Russian state television. He helped popularize “Novorossiya,” or New Russia, a concept Russia used to justify its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
It promotes Russia as a country of piety, traditional values and authoritarian leadership, and disdains liberal Western values.
Alexander Dugin is seen at a rally in Moscow in October 2014 in support of the Russian-backed breakaway self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. (Moscow News Agency/Reuters)
His daughter expressed similar views and had appeared as a commentator on the nationalist Tsargrad TV channel, where Dugin had served as editor-in-chief.
Dugina herself was sanctioned by the United States in March for her work as editor-in-chief of United World International, a website the US described as a source of disinformation. The sanctions announcement cited a United World article from this year that claimed Ukraine would “perish” if admitted to NATO.
Dugina, “like his father, has always been at the forefront of the confrontation with the West,” Tsargrad said on Sunday.