On the outskirts of Moscow, a vehicle explosion killed the daughter of a prominent Russian political thinker who is frequently referred to as “Putin’s brain,” authorities said.
The Russian Investigative Committee’s Moscow department reported that preliminary data suggested a device placed in the SUV Daria Dugina, 29, was driving exploded Saturday night, killing the TV pundit who was the daughter of nationalist philosopher and author Alexander Dugin.
Dugin is a well-known supporter of the idea of the “Russian world,” a spiritual and political philosophy that places an emphasis on traditional values, the restoration of Russia’s dominance, and the unification of all ethnic Russians worldwide. Additionally, he is a fierce advocate for Russia sending soldiers into Ukraine.
His daughter was coming home from a fair she had attended with him when the explosion happened. Witnesses, according to some Russian media accounts, claimed Dugin was the owner of the SUV and had opted at the last minute to use a different car.
The shocking and violent incident, which is unprecedented for Moscow, is likely to intensify hostility between Russia and Ukraine.
The rebel Donetsk People’s Republic’s president, Denis Pushilin, attributed the violence to “terrorists of the Ukrainian state, aiming to kill Alexander Dugin.”
One of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s advisors, Mykhailo Podolyak, refuted any connection on national television by asserting that “We are not a criminal state, unlike Russia, and definitely not a terrorist state.”
Former Putin advisor and analyst Sergei Markov told the Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti that Alexander Dugin, rather than his daughter, was probably the intended victim and that “it is completely obvious that the most probable suspects are Ukrainian military intelligence and the Ukrainian Security Service.”
Although it is unknown how closely connected Dugin is to Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin routinely quotes from his publications and appearances on Russian state television. He contributed to the spread of the “Novorossiya,” or New Russia, idea that Russia exploited to fund separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine and to legitimize its annexation of Crimea in 2014.
He rejects Western liberal principles and extols Russia as a nation of religiosity, traditional values, and authoritarian rule.
Similar opinions were voiced by his daughter, who also appeared as a pundit on the nationalist TV station Tsargrad, where Dugin had been head editor.
For her role as chief editor of United World International, a website that the U.S. referred to as a misinformation site, Dugina herself received sanctions from the United States in March. The sanctions statement highlighted a UWI article from this year that claimed admitting Ukraine to NATO would cause it to “perish.”
Using the popular version of her name, Tsargrad stated on Sunday that Dasha “has always been at the vanguard of confrontation with the West, like her father.”
Dugin outlined the Eurasianism philosophy in his 1997 book “The Foundations of Geopolitics.” The theory contends that due to its unique geographic location between Europe and Asia, Russia cannot fully integrate into Western civilisation. Dugin believes that Russia should instead embrace its geopolitical uniqueness and rule both realms, combining Europe and Asia into one vast empire governed by people of Russian descent. Since Dugin believes that the United States is in charge of the entire “Atlantic” globe, he has placed Eurasianism in direct opposition to liberalism.
In his book published in 1997, Dugin stated that “Ukraine as an independent state with some territorial ambitions constitutes a huge danger for all of Eurasia and, without addressing the Ukrainian crisis, it is, in general, pointless to speak about continental politics.”
After the Russian invasion, Dugin insisted that the only way for Russia to move forward was by absorbing Ukraine.
In a video that was uploaded on Telegram in March, Dugin stated, “Without Ukraine, Russia cannot become the empire once more.” “With Ukraine under Russian authority, it will once more become an empire.”
Lesley Stahl, a correspondent for “60 Minutes,” noted to Dugin in a 2017 interview that Putin appears to have taken note of all of his suggestions. In addition to suggesting that Russia annex Ukraine, which it accomplished for the first time in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea, Dugin also urged that Russia make Iran an ally and encourage the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.
The assertion that Putin is following his plan was rejected by Dugin. He emphasized that Putin was just now starting to implement his decades-old policy recommendations.
Dugin said to Stahl, “We expect him to be much more authoritarian than he is. Therefore, he slightly let us down because it took too long.