A suspected vehicle bombing has claimed the life of a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s. According to Russia’s investigating committee, Darya Dugina, 29, perished following an explosion on a road outside of Moscow. As “Putin’s brain,” the Russian scholar Alexander Dugin, her father may have been the intended victim of the assault.
Mr. Dugin is a well-known advocate of ultra-nationalism who is thought to be close to the Russian president. The philosopher gave a talk on Saturday night at a festival close to Moscow, and Alexander Dugin and his daughter were there.
At the Zakharovo estate, where Russian poet Alexander Pushkin once stayed, the “Tradition” festival bills itself as a family outing for art enthusiasts.
Before Mr. Dugin apparently decided at the last minute to travel separately, the pair was scheduled to leave the event in the same car. In a video sent on Telegram, Mr. Dugin can be seen gazing in shock as emergency personnel arrive at the site of a smoldering car wreck. The car’s driver, Ms. Dugina, perished at the scene close to Bolshiye Vyazemy, according to investigators.
They claimed that when an explosive device hidden under the automobile exploded, it set the car on fire. Experts on forensics and explosives are looking at it. Ukrainian involvement in the incident has been denied by a Ukrainian official. Mykhailo Podolyak, a counselor to President Volodymyr Zelensky, stated: “Ukraine, of course, has nothing to do with this since we are not a criminal state, which is the Russian Federation, and even less a terrorist state.”
If any connections to Ukraine were discovered, according to Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry’s spokeswoman, it would be “state terrorism.”
