Dugina, whose father Alexander Dugin is a prominent ideologue, was killed on Saturday when a bomb blew up the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving, Russian investigators said. read more Ukraine, defending itself from what it says is an imperialist-style war of conquest waged by Russia, has denied involvement in the attack, with an adviser to Ukrainian President Mykhailo Podolyak calling the charge “propaganda”. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Putin on Monday posthumously awarded Dugina the Order of Courage, a prestigious state award, “for courage and selflessness shown in the performance of his professional duty,” the Kremlin said. Dugina, a regular commentator on state television, has strongly supported Russia’s actions in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation.” Alexander Dugin, 60, has long advocated violence to achieve the unification of Russian-speaking and other territories. read more In his first public statement about the bombing, he said that Daria was brutally killed in front of his eyes by Ukraine. “Our hearts do not simply thirst for revenge or revenge,” Dugin wrote. “We just need our victory (against Ukraine). My daughter sacrificed her young life on the altar of victory. So please win!” Russia’s FSB security agency said the attack was carried out by a Ukrainian woman born in 1979, whom it named and whose photo and information appeared on Russian news websites. They linked her to Ukraine’s security services and accused her of being a member of the Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian army unit that Russia has designated a terrorist group. In response, Azov said the woman was never a member of the unit and accused Russia of making up lies. The FSB said the woman had arrived in Russia in July and spent a month preparing the attack. He had fled to Estonia afterwards, he said. Russian law enforcement authorities had put the woman on the country’s most wanted list, the TASS news agency reported, with Moscow seeking her extradition. The interior ministry and Estonia’s police and border service said in separate statements that they could share information about people entering and leaving Estonia “only in cases prescribed by law”, adding that the FSB’s claim did not meet that requirement. requirement.
“RED PATRIOT”
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, August 22, 2022. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov read more Putin paid tribute to Dugina as a patriot, calling her killing “evil and cruel”, while Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-backed RT media organization, suggested agents could track down the woman. “Estonia, of course, will not hand them over,” Simonyan wrote in Telegram. A memorial service for Dugina will be held on Tuesday at the Moscow Television Center, her father said. On Monday, Moscow residents laid flowers and lit candles at a makeshift memorial. “He was a unique person and this loss is absolutely irreplaceable,” said Sergei Sidorov. Some Russian opposition figures were wary of the speed with which the FSB appeared to solve the case and offered alternative versions. Ilya Ponomaryov, a former lawmaker turned Kremlin critic based in Ukraine, said a previously unknown group of Russian fighters called the National Republican Army was responsible. His claim and the group’s existence could not be independently verified by Reuters. Russia’s Investigative Committee did not respond to a request for comment. Ponomaryov was the only member of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, to vote against the annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014 and later left Russia. Ponomaryov, who runs an online television station designed to challenge the Kremlin’s narrative of the war, read a manifesto he said the group had sent him. He said the group was committed to overthrowing Putin and building a new Russia. Such statements are illegal in Russia and those who make them face long prison terms. His claim adds to a list of possible theories about who killed Dugina. Some people believe her father was the target. Ukrainian Podolyak said he believed the killing was the result of a battle between Russian intelligence services. Some Russian opposition activists have speculated that the assassination may have been orchestrated by forces inside Russia who wish to discourage ultranationalists like Dugin from criticizing the Kremlin because, in their eyes, it is too soft on Ukraine. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Reuters Editing by Gareth Jones and Rosalba O’Brien Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
