Darya Dugina, the 29-year-old daughter of Russian ultra-nationalist political writer and ardent supporter of the Ukraine invasion Alexander Dugin, was killed on Saturday night when the car she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion 20 kilometres from Moscow.
According to preliminary information, Dugina participated in an event that her father, who was supposed to use the same car to return to the capital of Russia. In the end, she took another vehicle.
Daria Dugina, a journalist and teacher, often acted as her father’s right hand. She openly supported the actions of the Russian Army in Ukraine and expressed her pride in having been the target of international sanctions together with her father. However, she was relatively unknown prior to her murder, leading to speculation that the explosive device that killed her was actually intended for her father.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the incident, and there was no evidence that the killing was related to the war in Ukraine.
But, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday it had solved the case and said Ukraine was directly responsible.
The FSB told Russian media that a Ukrainian woman had moved to Russia in July along with her young daughter, but that she was actually a Ukrainian special services contractor.
An adviser to Ukraine’s President Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, said the FSB’s version of events was “Russian propaganda” from “a fictitious world”.
The FSB later released video of the defendant’s car entering Russia, security footage of her entering what is said to be Ms. Dugina’s building, and leaving Russia.
A Ukrainian official rejected his country’s participation. But pro-Kremlin commentators and politicians were quick to blame Ukraine and demand revenge. However, the Kremlin was calm. Neither Putin nor his spokeswoman had issued a statement as night fell in Moscow.
Ms. Dugina was the daughter of Aleksandr Dugin, a self-taught philosopher and longtime leading proponent of an aggressive, imperialist Russia who has been urging the Kremlin to step up its assault on Ukraine.
Russian state television described the powerful explosion that shattered the windows of nearby houses as a “terrorist act” that targeted Mr Dugin and ended up killing his daughter because she took a different car at the last minute.
The Ukrainian National Guard has denied reports in Russian state media that Darya Dugina’s alleged killer had previously served in the Ukrainian army as a member of the Azov regiment.
The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti had shared a post from a Telegram channel run by Russian hackers (“RaHDit”) stating that the alleged assailant – a woman – had served in Azov, which is listed in Russia as a terrorist organization.
The National Guard said that “Russian media spread the information that the FSB reports that the murder of Oleksandr Dugin’s daughter, Darya, was prepared and carried out by the Ukrainian special services.”
He said Russian propagandists reported that the woman “had previously served as part of the Ukrainian Azov battalion.” In this way, they try to justify among their citizens the previous decision to recognize a unit of the National Guard of Ukraine as a terrorist organization, showing the Russians “the crimes committed by Azov” on the territory of the Russian Federation.”
The government of the Russian Federation has stated that the woman has not served in the Azov unit of the National Guard. “Obviously, there will be many more such stories. Especially on the eve of Ukraine’s main holiday,” the National Guard added.
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