The daughter of a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin was killed Saturday night in a car bomb explosion near Moscow.
Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian nationalist philosopher Alexander Dugin was killed after “an explosive device, presumably installed in the Toyota Land Cruiser, went off on a public road and the car caught fire,” CNN reported, citing the press service of the Russian Investigative Committee and the Russian state news agency Tass.
Denis Pushilin, the head of Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, said. “terrorists of the Ukrainian regime” were behind the attack, according to The New York Times. There was no claim of responsibility, the Times reported.
“Taking into account the data already obtained, the investigation believes that the crime was pre-planned and was of an ordered nature,” the investigative committee said in a statement Sunday, according to CNN.
Alexander Dugin is considered the “spiritual guide” for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and was called “Putin’s Brain” by Foreign Affairs magazine.
Father and daughter have both been placed under U.S. sanctions, according to CNN.
In April, the U.K. placed Darya Dugina on a sanctions list, calling her “a frequent and high-profile contributor of disinformation in relation to Ukraine and the Russian invasion of Ukraine on various online platforms.”
Videos of the explosion showed a vehicle on fire at the side of the road and smashed car parts strewn across the surrounding area. One unverified video appears to show Dugin at the scene, CNN reported.
The blast may have been mean for Dugin and not his daughter.
Is this explosion already be used as a weapon in the propaganda war?
“It’s her father’s car,” Andrei Krasnov, head of the Russky Gorizont social movement, told Tass, according to CNN.
“Dasha (Darya) drives another car, but she drove his car today, and Alexander went separately,” he said.
After Dugina “turned onto the Mozhaiskoye highway near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemi, there was an explosion, the car caught fire immediately,” Krasnov told Tass, according to CNN. “The flames completely engulfed it. She lost control because she was driving at high speed and flew to the opposite side of the road.”
Russian media are reporting that a car exploded in Moscow oblast; allegedly, Darya Dugina, Alexander Dugin’s daughter, was driving and that she died on the spot. No official confirmation at this point, also no information on the cause of the explosion. pic.twitter.com/7jeDuGVDjP
— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) August 20, 2022
The bitter divisions over the Russian war in Ukraine were evident on social media.
An assassination attempt was made on Alexander Dugin, the architect of modern Russian fascism, in the Moscow Oblast with a car bomb. The bomb missed him barley but killed his daughter Darya Dugina, who was a fascist journalist.
(Photo of Dugin in Shock Below) pic.twitter.com/XDjwOIiI2v
— Dylan Burns ???️? (@DylanBurns1776) August 21, 2022
I doubt the rumour that the assassination attempt was supposed to be on Alexander Dugin instead of his daughter Darya Dugina. It was her car they stuck the bomb to. Do not doubt the level of evil the enemy is capable of. They knew that this would devastate him. pic.twitter.com/dhk1XEgJ8l
— Syrian Girl ??? (@Partisangirl) August 21, 2022
Initial thoughts on the apparent assassination of Darya Dugina.
Considering the asymmetric nature of the war (Ukraine being outgunned by Russia), I wouldn’t be surprised if we see this:
Ukrainian hybrid warfare = terrorism.
— Львiв Tyler (@LvivTyler) August 20, 2022
The world is a better place now the fascist Darya Dugina is in hell
As her daddy said, what doesn’t kill him kills somebody else. His daughter, let’s see if he changes his mind about that https://t.co/QYEtw6MSat
— Мартен Шонхайм (@7cGZFfy7xnedbzM) August 21, 2022
Darya Dugina, daughter of Alexander Dugin a significant Putin influencing ideologue – killed in car bomb.
The war in Ukraine is creeping towards the Kremlin’s door. I doubt Vladimir ever thought that would happen.
https://t.co/Sj1teNNgkC— Otto English (@Otto_English) August 21, 2022
A Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman fingered Ukraine for the explosion, a claim Ukraine has publicly rejected.
“If the Ukrainian trace is confirmed … then we should talk about the policy of state terrorism implemented by the Kyiv regime,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote in a Telegram post, according to CNN. “There have been plenty of facts accumulated over the years: from political calls for violence to the leadership and participation of Ukrainian state structures in crimes.”
Ukraine on Sunday strenuously denied any involvement in the car explosion.
“Ukraine definitely has nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, which the Russian Federation is, and even more so, we are not a terrorist state,” said Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, in a Ukrainian television interview, according to CNN.
“We don’t even comment on this, because it is not an interesting topic for the Ukrainian special services,” Andrii Yusov, spokesperson for Ukraine’s chief directorate of military intelligence, said, according to The Washington Post.
“I can say that the process of internal destruction of the ‘Russky Mir,’ or ‘the Russian world,’ has begun,” Yuoov said, adding that “the Russian world will eat and devour itself from the inside.”
According to CNN, Darya Dugina claimed in a recent interview with the Russian news channel, 1RNK that atrocities ascribed to Russian troops during their occupation of the Ukrainian town of Bucha were American propaganda.
