The 29-year-old was the daughter of ultra-nationalist Alexander Dugin, who spoke during a farewell ceremony held on Tuesday, saying in a broken voice that his daughter “died for the people, died for Russia”. “The enormous price we have to pay can only be justified by the highest achievement: our victory,” he said, standing next to his daughter’s coffin, her black-and-white portrait placed behind it. “He lived for the sake of victory and he died for the sake of victory. Our Russian victory, our truth, our Orthodox faith, our state.” “He lived for the sake of victory and he died for the sake of victory. Our Russian victory, our truth, our Orthodox faith, our state,” Alexander Dugin said during a memorial service in Moscow. [Maxim Shemetov/Reuters] Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has accused Ukraine of orchestrating the assassination, but Kyiv has denied it. Dugina was killed when a remote-controlled explosive device planted in her SUV detonated Saturday night as she was driving on the outskirts of Moscow, tearing the vehicle apart and killing her on the spot, authorities said. Her father Alexander Dugin is a philosopher, writer and political theorist known for his support of Russian President Vladimir Putin, including his decision to send troops to Ukraine. He is widely believed to have been the target of the bombing. Russian media reported witnesses that the SUV belonged to Dugin and that he decided at the last minute to travel in another vehicle. Wednesday will mark the six-month anniversary of Russia’s “special military operation.” Dugina’s death has prompted calls among the Russian elite for revenge, and the US Embassy in Kyiv has warned of a possible increase in Russian military raids. Flowers and candles are placed next to a portrait of media commentator Darya Dugina, who was killed in a car bomb attack, in Moscow, Russia [File: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters] “I consider it a barbaric crime for which there can be no forgiveness,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “I hope that the investigation will be completed quickly and according to the results of this investigation of course there can be no mercy for the organizers, those who commissioned it and the perpetrators,” he told reporters. Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council secretary Oleksiy Danilov confirmed the denial late Monday, saying “our special services have nothing to do with this.” Russian President Putin expressed his condolences to Dugin and his wife in a letter, denouncing the “cruel and treacherous” killing and saying that Dugina “sincerely served the people and the Motherland, proving what it means to be a patriot of Russia with her actions”. Dugina was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage, one of Russia’s highest medals. The FSB said a Ukrainian citizen, Natalya Vovk, committed the killing after arriving in Russia in July with her 12-year-old daughter and renting an apartment in the building where Dugina lived to shadow her. He said that Vovk and her daughter were at the nationalist festival that Dugin and his daughter attended. The agency reported that Vovk drove to Estonia after the murder, using a different license plate for her vehicle. On Monday, the FSB released surveillance footage purported to show her entering and leaving Russia, as well as a close-up shot of her allegedly standing in front of the entrance to the Moscow apartment building where Dugina lived. The FSB also released photos of her vehicle with different license plates. Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu rejected the Russian claim, saying in televised statements that “we see this as an example of a provocation in a very long series of provocations by the Russian Federation and we have nothing more to say about it at this time.” Dugin, who is known as “Putin’s mastermind” and “Putin’s Rasputin” by some in the West, has been an outspoken advocate, calling for the restoration of Russia’s global influence and rejecting liberal Western values. His daughter shared similar views as she had appeared as a commentator on the Tsargrad TV channel, where Dugin had served as editor-in-chief. Dugin has been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union, while Dugina 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.
