Daria Dugina, the 29-year-old daughter of Alexander Dugin, a philosopher, author and political theorist described by some in the West as “Putin’s mastermind”, died when an explosive planted in her SUV detonated as she was driving on Saturday night. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the KGB’s main successor agency, said Dugina’s assassination was “prepared and committed by Ukrainian special services.” In a letter of condolence to Dugin and his wife released by the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced Dugina’s “cruel and treacherous” killing, hailing her as a “brilliant, talented person with a real Russian heart — kind, loving , responsive and open.” Putin added that Dugina “sincerely served the people and the Motherland, proving what it means to be a patriot of Russia by her actions.” On Sunday, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak denied any Ukrainian involvement in the assassination. In Monday’s statement, the FSB accused a Ukrainian national, Natalya Vovk, of carrying out the killing and then fleeing Russia to Estonia. 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, which Alexander Dugin and his daughter attended shortly before the murder. The agency reported that Vovk and her daughter fled Russia for Estonia after Dugina’s murder, using a different vehicle number plate as they left the country. In a statement released by a close aide, Dugin described his daughter as a “rising star” who was “treasonably murdered by the enemies of Russia.” “Our hearts yearn not only for revenge and retaliation, but it would be very petty, not in the style of Russia,” Dugin wrote. “We just need a win” Dugin has been a prominent supporter of the concept of the “Russian world”, an intellectual and political ideology that emphasizes traditional values, the restoration of Russia’s global influence, and the unity of all Russian ethnicities around the world. He has strongly supported Russian President Vladimir Putin’s move to send troops to Ukraine and urged the Kremlin to step up its operations in the country. 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. The explosion occurred as Dugin’s daughter was returning from a cultural festival she had attended with him. Russian media reported witnesses that the SUV belonged to Dugin and that he decided at the last minute to travel in another vehicle. On Sunday, Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-backed separatist “Donetsk People’s Republic” in eastern Ukraine, quickly blamed the explosion on “the terrorists of the Ukrainian regime, who tried to kill Alexander Dugin.” While Dugin’s exact ties to Putin are unclear, the Kremlin often echoes rhetoric from his writings and appearances on Russian state television. He helped popularize the concept of “Novorossiya” or “New Russia” that Russia used to justify its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and its support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. Dugin, who has been sanctioned by the US and the European Union, has promoted Russia as a country of piety, traditional values and authoritarian leadership and has spoken disparagingly of Western liberal values. His daughter expressed similar views and had appeared as a commentator on the nationalist Tsargrad TV channel, where Dugin had served as editor-in-chief. Dugina herself was sanctioned by the United States in March for her work as editor-in-chief of United World International, a website the US described as a source of disinformation. The sanctions announcement cited a United Nations article this year that argued Ukraine would “disappear” if it were admitted to NATO. In an appearance on Russian television just Thursday, Dugina said: “People in the West are living in a dream, a dream given to them by world hegemony.” He called America a “zombie society” in which people opposed Russia but couldn’t find it on a map.
