Daughter of Putin ally Alexander Dugin was killed in car bomb in on the outskirt Moscow.
According to Russia’s investigating committee, the daughter of an extreme nationalist Russian ideologue who is sometimes referred to as “Putin’s brain” was killed in a vehicle explosion on the outskirts of Moscow.
Investigators say that at around 9.30 p.m. local time (19:30 BST), Darya Dugina, whose father is the political commentator Alexander Dugin, died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was destroyed by a powerful explosion about 12 miles (20 km) west of the capital close to the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy.
According to witnesses, debris was flung all over the road as the automobile engulf in flame before crashing into a fence.
“An explosive device allegedly installed in a Toyota Land Cruiser car went off at full speed on a public highway, and then the car caught fire,” investigators wrote in their report of the incident. “The female driver died on the spot. The identity of the deceased has been established: it is the journalist and political scientist Darya Dugina.”
According to the news outlet Tass, Dugina’s acquaintance and the head of the Russian Horizon social movement, Andrey Krasnov, confirmed the reports.
He said that her father could have been the target of the explosion.
“This was the father’s vehicle. Darya was driving another car but she took his car today, while Alexander went in a different way. He returned, he was at the site of the tragedy. As far as I understand, Alexander or probably they together were the target,” Krasnov said.
According to media outlet 112, Dugin and his daughter attended an event outside of Moscow and were scheduled to return together until he opted to go separately at the last minute.
His grief was evident in video that surfaced on social media showing him at the scene.
The incident was quickly blamed on Kyiv by a number of pro-Kremlin officials. The head of the state-funded RT television station, Margarita Simonyan, wrote that “they blew up Dugin’s daughter” and advocated for attacks on the “decision-making centres” in Kyiv.
Denis Pushilin, the head of the self-proclaimed, Russian-controlled Donetsk People’s Republic, said on his Telegram channel that Dugina had been killed and blamed the Ukrainian government.
“Vile villains! The terrorists of the Ukrainian regime, trying to eliminate Alexander Dugin, blew up his daughter … In a car. Blessed memory of Daria, she is a real Russian girl!”
In an effort to pinpoint the precise circumstances surrounding the incident, investigators said that they had initiated a murder investigation and would be conducting forensic tests. When it came to determining who was responsible, they stated that they were evaluating “all versions.”
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The US and UK have imposed sanctions against Dugin and his daughter for their efforts to destabilise Ukraine. Dugina was referred to as a “frequent and high-profile contributor of disinformation in relation to Ukraine and the Russian invasion of Ukraine on various online platforms” by the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation in its submission.
Her role as chief editor of the website United World International, which the US Treasury said was run by Putin associate Yevgeny Prigozhin, landed her sanctions from the US Treasury.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES
