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Daughter of close Putin ally murdered in Moscow car bomb attack allegedly meant for her father

August 21, 2022 | | Print Article

Darya Dugina, daughter of Russian nationalist Alexander Dugin — the man known by some as President Vladimir Putin’s “Rasputin” — was murdered in a car bombing on the outskirts of Moscow, in an alleged assassination attempt on her father late Saturday night.

 

The author of The Fourth Political Theory and Foundations of Geopolitics, Alexander Dugin is a philosopher and radical Russian expansionist who has advocated for Russian rule “from Dublin to Vladisvostok.”

A close ally of Putin, Dugin, 60, is “credited with giving new life to the term Novorossiya (New Russia), which was adopted by Putin to justify his annexation of Crimea in 2014,” according to the Daily Mail. He is widely considered to be one of the architects of Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Darya Dugina, 29, left the “Tradition” music and literature festival and had been driving for roughly ten minutes when a bomb planted in the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado Dugina was driving exploded outside Moscow, the New York Post reported. The car belonged to Dugin, according to a friend of Darya’s, who was meant to be in the vehicle, but decided at the last minute to take a different ride.

Darya was killed instantly in a bomb that was meant to assassinate her father, news outlet Baza reported on Telegram.

Dugin arrived on the heartbreaking scene moments after the explosion and can be seen holding his head in hands as the car burns behind him.

While it has yet to be confirmed, Denis Pushilin, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in the contested Donbas region of Ukraine, posted on Telegram that the culprits were “terrorists of the Ukrainian regime.”

“The terrorists of the Ukranian regime, trying to eliminate Alexander Dugin, blew up his daughter… In a car,” he wrote. “Blessed memory of Daria, she is a real Russian girl!”

Like her father, Darya was a politically active Russian nationalist who was sanctioned by the US Treasury in March when she accepted the role of chief editor of the United World International (UWI) website, the Daily Mail reports. The site was owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a man suspected of meddling in the 2016 presidential race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

On Twitter, reactions to the car bombing range from heartfelt condolences to burgeoning conspiracy theories as details continue to emerge.

“Today, the Head of the Presidential Administration in Ukraine, Andrey Yermak, said that, ‘Our task is to make sure that not only the current generation of Russians, but their children and grandchildren will pay,'” wrote one user. “Eight hours later, Alexander Dugin’s daughter Darya was killed.”

“I doubt the rumour that the assassination attempt was supposed to be on Alexander Dugin instead of his daughter Darya Dugina. It was her car they stuck the bomb to. Do not doubt the level of evil the enemy is capable of. They knew that this would devastate him,” tweeted a journalist who goes by the handle “Syrian Girl.”

“It is just as likely to be an internal power struggle,” noted another user. “She was influential and heir apparent. Everyone is making big assumptions.”

And news outlet Visegrád 24 tweeted, “Dugin raised his daughter Darya to become the same type of mysticist neo-fascist that he is. She never rebelled against her father’s hateful ideology. In the months ahead of that car bombing that killed her tonight, she called Ukrainians ‘subhumans’ & said 🇺🇦 must be conquered.”

https://twitter.com/Valere_ia/status/1561213665931567106?s=20&t=UALLCl9KzM4Kqa1ibAylUA

 

Melissa Fine
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