Comment A top Russian propagandist who shouts war on Ukraine was walking in a Moscow park this weekend when one of her personal security guards ran past, alarmed by a child’s ball on a nearby bench. It could have been a bomb. “If I had the task of eliminating you, I would do just that – I would only put a ball in your path,” the bodyguard told Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of state broadcaster RT, who recounted the episode on Telegram. Hours after Simonyan’s walk in the park, another hardline pro-war propagandist, Daria Dugina, was killed in a car bomb attack in a Moscow suburb. The daughter of far-right nationalist Alexander Dugin died in a fiery explosion near one of the most exclusive enclaves for the capital’s powerful, wealthy elite. Russia’s internal security agency, the FSB, on Monday accused Ukraine’s security service of organizing the attack, saying a Ukrainian woman fled to Estonia with her young daughter after carrying it out. Ukrainian officials denied responsibility, and some speculated that Russian security services or other internal forces were to blame. There was also rampant speculation in Russia that Dugin was the intended target. Denials and details aside, Dugina’s killing has shocked Russian TV anchors, journalists and other commentators who are serving up propaganda justifying President Vladimir Putin’s invasion as a war against the Western world power and “Nazis” in Ukraine. The assassination immediately heightened a sense of vulnerability among Russia’s most elite and visible warlords, who now realize they may be targets and that the government is potentially powerless to protect them. It also raised the prospect of a serious escalation of the war as Putin comes under increased pressure, including from his grieving father Dugina, to hit Ukraine hard. Saturday’s car bombing followed mass explosions in southern Russia and occupied Crimea this month, as well as mysterious fires in buildings and warehouses across the country. Suddenly, the war that still seems a world away for many ordinary Russians has hit very close to home, a point that will be reinforced by a political memorial service for Dugina in central Moscow on Tuesday. The bombing undermines the Kremlin’s tacit contract with Russia’s largely passive population during Putin’s long tenure: that only he can maintain security, peace and economic stability. All three are now in question. Russians have been shocked by videos of Dugina’s car exploding in a fireball, images of crowds of holidaymakers fleeing occupied Crimea after an air base was bombed there and attacks on ammunition depots in southern Russia. They are also feeling the bite of sanctions, as prices soar and real wages fall. And while it was once Putin’s enemies and critics who feared being shot or poisoned, now it is the Russian leader’s most prominent public allies who are insecure, relying on private bodyguards and other safeguards against unseen and unpredictable threats. “By now it should be obvious to everyone that there are no safe places,” pro-Kremlin war reporter Yuri Kotenok tweeted, adding that Russians could no longer ignore the war. “Moscow is now a first-line city.” Simonyan, who has used RT’s prominent organ in recent days to call for stronger military strikes in Ukraine in retaliation for attacks in Crimea, announced on Telegram on Sunday that she doesn’t go anywhere without protection, not even for a walk in the park. Simonyan said that before Dugina’s murder, she thought it was “funny, really” when her guard went to get the ball. “And after two hours it turned out not to be. No joke,” he wrote. The Kremlin’s domestic narrative of peace and stability has now taken a backseat to Putin’s unsuccessful push to conquer Ukraine. That fight, pro-Kremlin analysts warn, could drag on for years of more war, which would mean prolonged Western sanctions and long-term economic stagnation — all in pursuit of a goal prized by Putin and his circle of hawkish hardliners. but not many from regular citizens. A former opposition lawmaker, Ilya Ponomarev, said an underground Russian guerrilla group claimed responsibility for Dugina’s murder, although neither he nor the National Republican Army provided evidence. Ponomarev told Ukrainian television that the group informed him in advance that they were targeting Dugin and his daughter. On Monday, he insisted that the Ukrainian woman named as a suspect by the FSB was not involved. Pro-Kremlin journalists and Russian nationalists began blaming Ukraine even before the FSB’s announcement. They called for a massive escalation of attacks, with some demanding that Russia bomb every government building in Ukraine. On Monday, state TV presenter Olesya Loseva called Dugina’s killing “a signal for all of us”. Russian men dying in war leave many families sad, angry and silent “Some will say that this is an indicator of the defeat of the Ukrainian Nazis on the battlefield,” Tigran Keosayan, a pro-Kremlin filmmaker and Simonyan’s husband, posted on Telegram. “Others will say that a terrorist attack in the capital once again crosses red lines.” In a complaint that underscores that Russia’s war has not gone according to plan, Keosayan called for the destruction of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s offices on Kyiv’s Bankova Street. “I don’t understand why there are still buildings on Bankova Street,” he wrote, echoing a frequent criticism from hawks that Russia should escalate its brutal shock tactics. Russian journalist Alexander Pelevin called for “the total destruction of the reptile,” referring to the Ukrainian government. In her Telegram post, Simonyan said she had been relying on continued protection since April, when the FSB announced it had foiled a plot against another prominent propagandist, Vladimir Solovyov. The agency released video of the arrest of six men, one with their hands tied, who said they had orders from Ukraine to kill Solovyov “as soon as possible.” In the apartment where the FSB said the arrests took place, the video showed a picture of Adolf Hitler, neo-Nazi literature, a red swastika T-shirt, guns, a blonde wig and three Sims DVDs. It made waves on Russian state television but was derided by global observers as if the alleged plot had been staged. Pro-Kremlin war correspondent Semyon Pegov, whose WarGonzo Telegram channel has more than a million followers, warned on Sunday that the war would be long because it was changing “the very essence of history”. “Right now we all need to realize in our minds and hearts how serious this is for all of us,” he said in a series of posts about Saturday’s killing. The car bomb showed that Russia faces “an entirely different level of terrorist threat,” he wrote. Pegov claimed without evidence that Ukrainian “cells” were operating in Moscow, that at least two recent terrorist attacks had been prevented and that more were possible. “We have no moral right to say exactly who they targeted, but we assure you that the terrorists managed to go far enough,” he posted. One plan, he claimed, involved smuggling improvised bombs, which he said amounted to proof of traitors within the system. In Ukraine, a Russian mercenary group is emerging from the shadows Amid questions about who orchestrated Dugina’s murder, outrage from pro-Kremlin figures suggested her death would have far-reaching consequences. Liberal journalist Yulia Latynina of Novaya Gazeta, an independent newspaper forced to close in March, predicted a wave of arrests and repression similar to the Soviet repression of the 1930s known as the Great Terror. Analyst Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of the R.Politik think tank, said the assassination could increase pressure on Putin to respond with a tougher approach to the war. The Kremlin would struggle to control the growing confrontation and violence between rival political camps in Russia, Stanovaya predicted in a Telegram post. “Putin’s future decisions may appear weak and less legitimate to a shocked conservative segment of the elite and society,” Stanovaya wrote. “The assassination of Dugina creates the conditions where a political demand for a more radicalized political leadership than Putin himself is being formed. And the Kremlin will not be able to meet it.”
War in Ukraine: What you need to know
The last: Grain shipments from Ukraine are being accelerated under the agreement reached by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations in July. Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports had sent food prices soaring and sparked fears of more famine in the Middle East and Africa. At least 18 ships, including cargoes of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, have departed. The battle: The conflict on the ground continues as Russia uses its heavy artillery advantage to pound Ukrainian forces, which have at times managed to put up stiff resistance. In the south, Ukraine’s hopes rest on liberating the Russian-held region of Kherson, and eventually Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014. Fears of a disaster at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant persist as both sides accuse each other of they bomb. The weapons: Western arms supplies are helping Ukraine slow Russian advances. US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Missile Systems (HIMARS) allow Ukrainian forces to strike further behind Russian lines against Russian artillery. Russia has used a range of weapons against Ukraine, some of which have drawn the attention and concern of analysts. Photos: Washington Post photographers have been on the ground since the start of the war — here are some of their strongest works. How you can help: Here are ways those in the US can help support the Ukrainian people, as well as the donations people have made around the world. Read his full coverage Russia-Ukraine crisis. You’re in…
