Moving quickly to assign responsibility, Russia on Monday said Ukrainian intelligence services were responsible for the brazen bombing that killed the daughter of a leading right-wing Russian political thinker over the weekend. Ukraine denied involvement. Darya Dugina, a 29-year-old commentator for a nationalist Russian television channel, died when a remote-controlled explosive device planted in her SUV detonated Saturday night as she drove on the outskirts of Moscow, tearing the vehicle apart and killing her on the spot, authorities said. Her father, Alexander Dugin, a philosopher, author and political theorist who strongly supports Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to send troops to Ukraine, is widely believed to have been the intended target. Russian media reported witnesses that the SUV belonged to Dugin and that he decided at the last minute to travel in another vehicle. Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, the main successor to the KGB, said Dugina’s killing was “prepared and carried out by Ukrainian special services.” The FSB said a Ukrainian national, Natalya Vovk, carried out the killing and then fled to Estonia. In Estonia, the attorney general’s office said in a statement broadcast by Baltic News Services that it “has not received any request or investigation from the Russian authorities on this issue.” The FSB said Vovk arrived in Russia in July with her 12-year-old daughter and rented an apartment in the building where Dugina lived to shadow her. He said Vovk and her daughter were at a nationalist festival attended by Dugin and his daughter shortly before the murder. The agency released video of the suspect from surveillance cameras at border crossings and at the entrance to the Moscow apartment building. The FSB said Vovk used a license plate for the Russian-backed separatist region of Donetsk, Ukraine, to enter Russia and a Kazakh license plate in Moscow before switching to a Ukrainian one to cross into Estonia. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak denied any Ukrainian involvement in the bombing. In a tweet, he dismissed the FSB’s claims as fictitious, calling them part of the infighting between Russian security services. In a letter expressing condolences to Dugin and his wife, Putin denounced the “cruel and treacherous” killing and added that Dugina “honestly served the people and the Motherland, proving what it means to be a patriot of Russia by her actions.” Dugina was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage, one of Russia’s highest medals. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharov said Dugina’s killing reflected Kiev’s reliance on “terrorism as an instrument of its criminal ideology.” In a statement, Dugin described his daughter as a “rising star” who was “treacherously killed by the enemies of Russia.” “Our hearts yearn not only for revenge and retribution. It would be very trivial, not in Russia’s style,” Dugin wrote. “We just need a win” The car bomb attack, unusual for Moscow since the gang wars of the turbulent 1990s, prompted calls from Russian nationalists to respond by intensifying strikes in Ukraine. Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst, argued that the perpetrators of Dugina’s killing may have hoped to encourage a split between those in the Russian elite who support a political compromise to end hostilities in Ukraine and those who advocate even tougher military action. . Dubbed “Putin’s mastermind” and “Putin’s Rasputin” by some in the West, Dugin has been a prominent proponent of the concept of the “Russian world,” an intellectual and political ideology that emphasizes traditional values, the restoration of global Russia’s influence and unity. of all Russians around the world. Dugin helped popularize the concept of “Novorossiya” or “New Russia” used by Russia to justify its annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014 and its support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. He urged the Kremlin to step up its activities in Ukraine. Dugin has also promoted authoritarian leadership in Russia and spoken disparagingly of liberal Western values. He was sanctioned by the US and the European Union. His daughter expressed similar views and had appeared as a commentator on the Tsargrad TV channel, where Dugin had served as editor-in-chief. Dugina herself was sanctioned by the US in March for her work as editor-in-chief of United World International, a website Washington has described as a source of disinformation. In an appearance on Russian television last week, Dugina called America “a zombie society,” where people oppose Russia but can’t find it on a map.
