The daughter of a far-right Russian ideologue widely known as “Putin’s brain” for his alleged influence on the Russian president’s fascist views was reportedly killed in a car bomb outside Moscow late Saturday.
Footage of the blast was widely circulated on Telegram by the news channels Baza and 112, which reported that Darya Dugina, Alexander Dugin’s daughter, had been killed instantly in the blast. Russia’s TASS news agency quoted law enforcement sources as confirming that a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado had exploded, but they did not confirm the driver’s identity and only described the victim as a woman. However, a man identified by TASS as an acquaintance of Dugina confirmed that she had been murdered.
Russian news channel Baza reported that Dugina, 30, had returned home from a literature and music festival called “Tradition” when the blast happened. She was reportedly behind the wheel for just 10 minutes before the blast.
Alexander Dugin was supposed to be in the vehicle his daughter was driving, but had gotten into another vehicle at the last minute, according to Pyotr Lundstrem, a Russian violinist quoted by the outlet.
Dugin reportedly followed right behind his daughter and witnessed her car explode. Photos shared by Baza appeared to show Dugin distraught on the scene, holding his head in both hands as he stood in front of the fiery wreckage.
Denis Pushilin, the Russian proxy leader of occupied Donetsk in Ukraine, angrily accused “terrorists of the Ukrainian regime” for the explosion, writing on Telegram that they “tried to liquidate Alexander Dugin” but “blew up his daughter”.
“In loving memory of Darya, she is a real Russian girl,” Pushilin wrote.
Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and social media pages similarly blamed Ukraine for the explosion and called on the Russians to “avenge” Dugina’s death.
Investigators would view the explosion as a targeted hit that may have been intended for Alexander Dugin, a philosopher widely believed to be the main architect of Vladimir Putin’s ideology of a “Russian world” and the driving force behind his aggression against Ukraine.
Darya Dugina was outspoken in her support for the Russian war against Ukraine. As evidence began to pile up of Russian war crimes in the Kiev suburb of Bucha in April, Dugina argued in an interview that the massacre of civilians had been staged, claiming bizarrely that the US chose the city because of its name in English. sounds like “butcher.” She was also sanctioned by the US government in March for her role in a Kremlin-led influence operation known as Project Lakhta.
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