The Russian authorities said on Sunday that a car bomb killed the adult daughter of a prominent Russian ultranationalist whose writings are believed to have influenced President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The authorities said they had opened a murder investigation into the death of Daria Dugina after a Toyota Land Cruiser exploded on a highway in an affluent suburb 32km west of Moscow and burst into flames, scattering pieces across the road. State news media identified her as the daughter of Aleksandr Dugin, an outspoken supporter of Russia’s war in Ukraine, whose car she was driving.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the incident. Russian news media said that associates of Dugin believed that he, not his daughter, was the target.
A Ukrainian official disavowed his country’s involvement. But pro-Kremlin commentators and politicians quickly blamed Ukraine and demanded revenge.
Russian investigators said an explosive device had been planted underneath the car on the driver’s side and that the attack was believed to have been “a premeditated crime”.
Dugin is a self-educated political philosopher known for pushing a vision of a more powerful, aggressive Russia. He is frequently described as “Putin’s brain”.
The US has imposed sanctions against Dugin for supporting militants in eastern Ukraine. Dugina shared her father’s views and promoted them as a radio and TV anchor. In July, the British government imposed sanctions on Dugina, citing her as a “frequent and high-profile contributor of disinformation in relation to Ukraine and the Russian invasion of Ukraine on various online platforms”.
Russia’s Investigative Committee — the country’s version of the FBI — said in a statement that Dugina had died at the scene of the blast in the Odintsovo district, an affluent area of Moscow’s suburbs.
Images and videos circulating on Russian social media showed a vehicle engulfed in flames and car parts blasted across the road. A man who appeared to be Dugin paced back and forth, holding his hands to his head, as fire trucks rushed to put out flames.
Zakhar Prilepin, a popular conservative writer, said in a post on his Telegram channel that Dugin and his daughter were at a festival on Saturday but left in different cars.
A senior Ukrainian official denied responsibility for the attack. “Ukraine certainly had nothing to do with yesterday’s explosion,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the President, said in televised comments on Sunday. “We are not a criminal state like the Russian Federation, much less a terrorist one.”
New York Times News Service
