Source, Reuters
Darya Dugina, daughter of political scientist Aleksandr Dugin, a close and prominent supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died as a result of the explosion of a bomb placed in his car.
While Dugina, a journalist, was on her way to her home near Moscow, an explosion occurred in her car.
Defending her father’s ideas, Dugina was returning from a festival they attended together and where her father was giving a speech.
Attending a nationalist festival called “Tradition”, Dugin and his daughter were going to leave together on Saturday night, but at the last moment Dugin decided to travel separately from his daughter.
Dugina’s father, Aleksandr Dugin, is an ultranationalist ideologue and is also known as Putin’s “mentor”. It is speculated that the explosion may have intended to target Dugin.
In the images shared on the social messaging application Telegram, it is seen that Dugin watches the burning vehicle in shock. The BBC could not confirm the source of the footage.
Authorities conducting the investigation stated that the incident took place near the town of Bolshie Vyazyomy, and that 30-year-old Dugina died during the incident.
Speaking to the Russian state agency TASS, Dugin family friend Andrei Krasnov stated that the Toyota Land Cruiser model vehicle belongs to Aleksandr Dugin and the main target may be Dugin.
Source, Reuters
Who is Alexander Dugin?
Although Dugin does not hold an official position in the Russian government, he is known to be a big supporter of Putin.
Dugin is even referred to as “Putin’s Rasputin”.
Darya Dugina was a well-known journalist and shared the same views as her father.
Finally, he advocated the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier this year, the United Kingdom and the United States sanctioned Darya Dugina for spreading misinformation about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In a May article, he described the Ukraine war as a “clash of civilizations” and said he was “proud” that the West had sanctioned him and his father.
Aleksandr Dugin was also included in the Western sanctions list for Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2015.
Dugin’s writings are known to have had profound effects on Vladimir Putin’s worldview, and Dugin is recognized as the main intellectual architect of the ultranationalist ideology that prevailed in the Kremlin.
Dugin has long argued that Moscow should assert itself more aggressively on the global stage and has advocated the unification of the Russian-speaking regions under a “Russian empire.”
Source, Reuters
Alexander Dugin
Will Vernon, BBC Moscow
Although Dugin does not hold an official position in the Russian government, he is a symbolic figure in Russian politics.
Anti-Western, ultranationalist views became the main ideology in Russia and helped shape Putin’s expansionist foreign policy, particularly in Ukraine.
Now all attention will be on finding out who is behind this attack.
Deniz Pushilin, the head of the pro-Russian separatist “Donetsk People’s Republic”, which declared its independence unilaterally in Ukraine, has already blamed Ukraine for the attack.
In his message shared on Telegram, Pushilin wrote, “The terrorists of the Ukrainian regime are trying to eliminate Aleksandr Dugin and blow up his daughter’s car. We will live the memory of Daria, she is a real Russian girl.”
Mikhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, denied the allegations that Ukraine had anything to do with the bombing.
Attacks like these make the Kremlin uneasy because one of the biggest pillars of Kremlin propaganda is that Putin brought “security and stability” to the country after the turbulent period of the 1990s.
This bombing in the capital shakes up this Kremlin narrative.