The Kremlin leader had been severely assailed by Alexander Dugin, also referred to as “Putin’s Rasputin,” just before his daughter Darya was killed by a car bomb.
In the days before the fatal blast, there had been an online effort to degrade Dugin; it now appears that it was meant for him rather than his daughter.
The information supports the allegation that 29-year-old TV personality and ultranationalist commentator Darya Dugina was murdered by Putin-aligned Russian special forces or other groups.
Ukraine has vehemently denied any involvement in the murder in Moscow and charged Moscow with staging a “false flag” operation to place the blame on Kyiv.
The SBU, Kyiv’s special services, were allegedly behind the murder, according to an allegation made by the Russian FSB today. Natalia Vovk, a woman born in 1979, was allegedly the target of the hit.
According to SHOT media, she and her 12-year-old daughter Sophia Shaban arrived in Russia on July 23.
“The girl [Dugina] was being spied on using a Mini Cooper.” Three different sets of numbers were utilized, including those from the DPR, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, according to SHOT.
According to the evidence, Vovk and her daughter came to the Tradition festival on the day of the crime and left for Estonia via Pskov on August 21 following a staged explosion.
This account of the events is reportedly being investigated by the Russian Investigative Committee.
One and a half kilometers after she exited an exclusive parking lot where it is thought to have been mined, her Toyota Land Cruiser was struck by an explosion.
According to reports, the explosive may have been set off remotely. According to some experts, it was the equivalent of “a simultaneous explosion of six grenades” and held 400 to 800g of TNT.
Dugin, who was observed at the scene of the incident clutching his head in his hands in astonishment, is apparently now in the hospital.
He had published an angry online post on Telegram seven hours prior to the murder, declaring that the conflict in Ukraine now trumped Putin’s government.
According to Dugin, the conflict and the “desperate resistance of the Atlanto-Nazi dictatorship in Kyiv” require “internal adjustments” from Russia.
Putin was being harshly criticized in the tone.
Zelensky’s firm refusal to negotiate, the West’s persistence in severing all ties with Russia, increasing attacks on Crimea, attempts to stage a nuclear explosion in Zaporizhzhya, declarations of a counteroffensive on Kherson, and all these are signs that they have decided to stand to the bitter end, he wrote.
They are understandable: Russia did threaten the West as a civilisation, and this is not propaganda. Therefore, we too must proceed all the way to the end.
We haven’t really started anything yet, according to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief [Putin]. We must now get started. We’re going to have to whether you like it or not.
The issue now is not whether or not the government wants reform, the speaker cautioned. Such changes are simply unavoidable; even if you fight them to the death, you will only be able to postpone them for a maximum of six months. And then they’ll still show up.
He also issued a dire warning to Putin, saying that the military campaign aimed at destroying Ukraine and thwarting the West “is now more essential than the power [itself].”
“The tectonic plates have shifted, and the great forces of history are at work.” Let the previous government bury its dead. Russian time will soon change. And it’s approaching irrevocably.”
The assassination of Dugina was carried out professionally, according to renowned Russian analyst Andrei Piontkovsky, suggesting that the secret services are responsible.
There is no doubt that these were Russian special forces. The ultra-fascist group, which lately began criticizing Putin for “not being fascist enough,” is well recognized for having Dugin as a spiritual advisor.
Piontkovsky claimed that Dugin and his allies had started to alarm Putin’s entourage at a time when Putin was making every effort to put a stop to the fighting.
Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian lawmaker currently living in exile in Ukraine, asserted that the attack was carried out by the National Republic Army, a previously unidentified anti-war organization.
Boryslav Bereza, a former Ukrainian lawmaker, claimed the goal was to eliminate Dugin as a rival for Putin’s attention by hardline groups close to the president.
However, as is often in Russia, things did not go as planned, and Dugin’s daughter was slain instead of him.
Prior to the car explosion, it was said that Dugin was the target of a significant media campaign.
He asserted that the Russian army’s humiliation in Ukraine was the reason relations between him and Putin lately soured.
One of Putin’s former commanders even called the Russian president a “clown” who had been outplayed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as frustration and indignation over Russia’s conflict in Ukraine grew.
“The blowing up of the automobile of the prominent Russian fascist and ideologist of the Putin dictatorship, Alexander Dugin, was orchestrated, it seems, by the Russian security services,” historian Yuri Felshtinsky, author of Blowing up Ukraine, claimed.
In his secured property, the device was linked to Dugin’s car, according to the most recent Russian reports, he said. Unlike Russia, Ukraine focuses on military targets, therefore targeting one of Putin’s media pawns or committing limited operations inside the Russian Federation to such a pointless objective is of little apparent use to the liberation of Ukraine.
However, the Kremlin will probably take advantage of it to make it appear as though Ukraine is resorting to its own tactics of bombing defenseless citizens there.
Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian politician, asserted as well that the National Republican Party, an unidentified Russian organization, was responsible for the explosion. The group’s existence could not be confirmed.
On Russian television, he declared: “Last night, a historic incident occurred close to Moscow. The Russian opposition to Putinism has a new chapter thanks to this attack. The new one is not the last.
Igor Girkin, a veteran of the intelligence and military who played a key role in the seizure of Crimea and some of the Donbas region in 2014, has made fun of the actions of the Russian president in Ukraine, raising suspicions that Putin’s inner circle may have turned against him and committed the bombing attack.
Girkin claimed that Zelensky was frequently referred to as a “clown” because, before to becoming the presidency, he worked as a TV comic.
However, the conflict followed, said Girkin. Zelensky, he claimed, “didn’t flee” or “hide in a bunker” throughout the conflict like Putin did.
The Ukrainian president said that he had “announced, launched, and carried out a national mobilization” of his nation’s males of military age and “achieved enormous delivery of armaments from NATO,” adding that he had “fooled the Kremlin.”
After his daughter was killed, Dugin, a Russian ultranationalist and fascist who fantasizes about reestablishing a great new empire throughout Europe and Asia, was transported to the hospital.
On Saturday, when he was driving near the village of Bolshiye Vyazyomy outside of the city, he chose to take a different car than his daughter, narrowly escaping death.
Yesterday, Moscow police verified that a bomb had been placed under the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado Dugina was operating.
Putin’s “Rasputin,” the bereaved father, is seen in a heartbreaking video from Baza Media standing at the explosion site.
Emergency services sirens blare as the automobile appears to be on fire. As per reports, she passed away immediately.
Her father, who is thought to be the mastermind behind Putin’s meddling in Ukraine beginning in 2014, was actually supposed to be in the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado that was struck, but the former professor reportedly switched cars at the last second.
Ms. Dugina was returning from a cultural festival she had attended with her father when the explosion happened.
Dugina co-authored a book on Putin’s conflict in Ukraine and served as editor of the pro-Putin publication United World International.
Her father is the author of a far-right perspective on Russia’s place in the world that Putin found appealing.
Just before she was killed, the two were seen together at a pro-Putin public rally.
I knew Darya personally, according to Andrey Krasnov, the leader of the Russian Horizon social movement and a close friend of the deceased.
This was the father’s car, she said. Alexander went one way today, while Darya took his automobile. When he came back, the tragedy’s scene was where he was.
According to what I understand, Alexander or likely both of them were the intended victims.
Despite the lack of any evidence linking Ukraine or its operatives to the incident in Moscow, leading pro-Putin war supporters were quick to call for an all-out assault on Kyiv in response to the supposed assassination.
The leader of the RT “propaganda” network, Margarita Simonyan, wrote on Telegram that it was imperative to destroy Ukraine’s most important “decision-making centers.”
Decision-making centers, she penned. centers for making decisions! centers for making decisions!
Her request matches that of Putin’s hardliners who want him to destroy central Kyiv with numerous missile attacks.
Maxim Kononenko, a propagandist, tweeted: “The address of the SBU’s [Ukrainian secret services] main headquarters is Volodymyrska 33, Kyiv. I’m going to attempt to go to sleep right now, and when I wake up, I’m hoping to see on the news that it was f****** bombed along with its basements.
The potential harm to other pro-Putin propagandists was also foreshadowed.
Denis Pushilin, the leader of the pro-Moscow puppet state in eastern Ukraine known as the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), wrote on Facebook: “The terrorists of the Ukrainian dictatorship, aiming to assassinate Alexander Dugin, blew up his daughter…in a car.” Daria, may she rest in peace, is a true Russian girl.
He accused the “terrorists of the Ukrainian regime” directly.
“A young, educated, gorgeous, very accomplished and sensitive woman,” was how one person characterized Dugina.
Dugin, a far-right occult author who formerly served as editor of the vehemently pro-Putin Tsargrad TV network, is considered as the Russian warmonger’s “guru advisor” despite having no official position in the government and is said to have significant influence over him.
He is credited with revitalizing the phrase Novorossiya (New Russia), which Putin used to defend the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
In his 1997 book Foundations of Geopolitics, Dugin argued for Russian dominance “from Dublin to Vladisvostok,” a fantasy of an expansionist Russia that has long been his. Before he was sanctioned by the US in 2015 for allegedly recruiting troops for Russia-backed groups in the country, he previously declared that not regaining control of Ukraine would be “an huge danger for all of Eurasia.”
The United States Treasury also imposed sanctions on his daughter Darya after she rose to the position of top editor at the website owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is suspected of meddling in the 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. UWI was where she worked.
The vehicle bombing strikes occurred on Monday as Russian soldiers continued their offensive throughout numerous regions of Ukraine.
Prior to Wednesday, which marks Ukraine’s Independence Day and also marks six months since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Zelensky issued a warning, warning that Moscow would do “something really unpleasant.”
Zelensky claimed that he had spoken with French President Emmanuel Macron about “all the threats,” and that he had also informed other world leaders, such as Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
In his nightly video message, Zelenskiy stated of Russia, “All of Ukraine’s partners have been notified of what the terrorist state can prepare for this week.”
Additionally, he claimed that if Russia carried out its plans to extradite Ukrainian defenders captured in Mariupol, it would have broken international law and cut itself off from discussions.
This would be the point beyond which negotiations are no longer feasible, he continued, if this vile show trial were to proceed. There won’t be any more discussions. Everything has been said by our state.
The Financial Times was informed by Gennady Gatilov, the Russian ambassador to the UN in Geneva, that Erdogan had made an effort to promote communication between Russia and Ukraine.
Gatilov, however, shot off rumors that Zelensky and Putin had held direct discussions, claiming there “was not any practical platform for having this meeting.”
According to the Ukraine’s General Staff’s daily report on Monday, Russian forces attacked the Soledar, Zaytseve, and Bilogorivka communities in the eastern Bakhmut region using artillery and multiple rocket launcher systems.
The General Staff noted that they were still concentrating their efforts on taking complete control of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions while retaining the gained territory in Kherson and portions of the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Mykolaiv regions.
The shelling of Nikopol is very worrying.
Four persons were hurt as a result of rocket assaults that occurred overnight in the Dnipropetrovsk region’s Nikopol, Krivyi Rih, and Synelnykovsky neighborhoods, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said on Telegram on Monday.
According to the local administration, two civilians died in the eastern Ukrainian province of Donetsk over the course of the previous day.
In the meantime, a purported Ukrainian incursion on Saturday resulted in another kamikaze drone strike that struck the Russian Navy’s command center in Crimea and caused a massive explosion.
In spite of frantic efforts from Putin’s men to shoot down the UAV, as seen in a video where repeated gunfire is heard, smoke was observed pouring into the air after the strike.
According to reports, the naval headquarters took a direct hit as scared Russian visitors evacuated the well-known holiday peninsula.
Mikhail Razvozhaev, the governor of Sevastopol, confirmed the incident in a Telegram message, writing: “Unfortunately, [the drone] was not shot down, even though they operated on the bay with small guns.” It dropped low. No victims were reported.
The Ukro-Reich morons’ tenacity, he cautioned, is astonishing.
If at all feasible, everyone must return home within the hour.
Russian resort Yevpatoriya, located north of Sevastopol, also saw incoming strikes. A guy was overheard there stating, “This is not funny.” Let’s leave now by packing our belongings. There is no fireworks here.
According to Sergei Aksyonov, the leader of Putin’s government in the annexation of Crimea, the air defense system was activated in the western Crimea.
The target was struck.
There are no damages or injuries.
Our armed forces complete their missions in a transparent, competent, and efficient manner.
I want everyone to maintain their composure and only believe official information.
When the initial wave of assaults began, Razvozzhaev initially declared: “I am at my job in the government.”
I heard the clapping in the [city] center, along with many of the locals.
‘Similar sounds were detected in the Strelka neighborhood a little earlier.
In the bay, the air defense was in action.
In the middle, naval artillery was in action.
identical to yesterday.
Preliminary information indicates that [they were shooting down drones.
Aims were achieved.
We don’t waver.
The military is doing an excellent job.
Support them, please.
However, among the tourists who are evacuating the peninsula, the fear of strikes on Crimea, a new phase in the war this month, is apparent.
The explosion is the most recent in a spate of mysterious explosions that are thought to have been caused by Ukrainian forces deep within the seized peninsula.
The attacks have severely limited the invaders’ military capabilities, according to intelligence sources, who also showed how Kiev can disrupt Russian supplies.
It comes after a significant explosion last week at a Russian air facility in Crimea. The incident, according to Western officials, caused the loss of half of Russia’s Black Sea naval aviation force.
According to a source, they lost their military headquarters as well as their flagship Moskva, Snake Island, and half of their naval aviation package. I believe we should prepare for Ukrainian attacks behind enemy lines.
On the south-western coast near Sevastopol, the headquarters of Vladimir Putin’s Black Sea fleet, the explosions were reportedly heard at an air base close to the settlement of Belbek.
The sky has been lighted up at Kerch, which is close to a large bridge to Russia, with what Moscow has claimed was firing from its air defenses.
Two villages within Russia have been evacuated following explosions at an ammunition dump in the region of Belgorod, more than 60 miles away from the area under Ukrainian control.
A hit on a bridge at the Kakhovska Dam, close to Kherson, one of the last access points for Russian soldiers on the west side of the Dnipro River, was also reported by Kyiv.
According to the official, these assaults were having a “major psychological effect on the Russian leadership.”
Despite satellite images showing at least eight jets that were entirely burned up, Russia has denied that any aircraft were destroyed in what it called an accident at the base.
Moscow’s leadership has been greatly impacted psychologically as a result of the recent explosions, which have brought the invasion of Ukraine to a virtual halt, according to Western officials.
According to the British Ministry of Defence, explosions last week at the Russian-operated Saky military airstrip in western Crimea, a region Moscow previously thought to be secure, rendered more than half of the Russian navy’s Black Sea Fleet combat jets inoperable (MoD).
President Putin is attempting to hide Ukraine’s success from the Russian populace while the Kremlin is busy trying to pin the responsibility for the disaster on someone.
In addition, two towns in Russia’s Belgorod region had to be evacuated due to a fire at a weapons store close to the Russian village of Timonovo as thousands of Russians fled the Crimea and poured into the nation, according to officials on Friday.
The villages of Timonovo and Soloti, located 15 miles from the Ukrainian border, have a combined population of about 1,100. According to Vyacheslav Gladkov, the regional governor of Belgorod, there were no injuries in the fire late on Thursday.
Nine Russian airplanes are said to have been destroyed in the strike on the Crimean airbase last week.
The attack revealed the Russians’ weakness as well as the Ukrainians’ ability to launch a previously unthinkable attack beyond enemy lines.
The Ukrainian government has refrained from taking the blame in the blasts in Crimea, which Russia has attributed to “sabotage,” although President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted at Ukrainian attacks behind enemy lines.
One Western official commented on Ukraine’s capabilities: “Ukraine is now routinely achieving kinetic effects deep below Russia’s borders.”
In addition to having a tangible impact on Russia’s logistical support, the episodes have also had a substantial psychological impact on the country’s leadership.
They continued, saying that the assaults had put the Black Sea Fleet in a defensive position and prevented Russia from successfully launching an amphibious assault on Odesa on the Ukrainian coast, which would have effectively cut off most of Ukraine’s access to the sea.
The battle has reached a “near operational halt,” according to the Western official, and neither side’s ground forces have enough concentrated combat power to launch successful offensive attacks.
As it works to reassemble its forces, Russia is experiencing a severe scarcity of inventories, even of basic ammunition, as well as manpower challenges.
They emphasized that there was a time when bombardment was continuous and that it reached a very high peak, notably around the war for the Donbas.
“We are no longer at that apex.”
The campaign’s overall pace has slowed down, in part because both sides are more aware that it’s a marathon rather than a sprint and that keeping expenditures low and saving ammunition are crucial.
The MoD reports that this week, Russian airstrikes on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, resulted in at least 12 civilian deaths.
The official stated that “this civilian suffering gives an extremely striking example of Russian cynicism,” adding that Moscow had no plans to invade the region or gain a significant tactical advantage from the shelling.
The head of GCHQ claimed that Moscow’s attempts to advance against Ukraine via cyberspace had failed.
According to Sir Jeremy Fleming’s opinion piece in The Economist, “President Putin has completely lost the information war in Ukraine and in the West so far.”
“Like its invasion of the land, Russia’s original online plans seem to have failed.”
In remarks shown on television on Friday, Sergei Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister of Russia, claimed that claims made by Ukrainian officials about attacking facilities in Crimea indicate “an escalation of the conflict openly backed by the US and its NATO partners.”
In phone conversations with high-ranking members of the Biden administration, Ryabkov said that Russian authorities had forewarned the US against taking such acts.
According to him, “deep and open US engagement” in the conflict in Ukraine “essentially brings the US to the point of joining the fray.”
We don’t want things to get worse, Ryabkov said. “We would like to prevent a scenario in which the US becomes a party to the conflict, but so far we haven’t seen their readiness to deeply and seriously consider those warnings,” the statement continued.
Putin fired his Black Sea naval commander earlier this week in response to the strikes.
Igor Osipov’s dismissal was the most public military figure to be fired in the nearly six months since Russia started its war on Ukraine.
Viktor Sokolov, the new commander, was reportedly introduced to the fleet’s military council in Sevastopol, according to state-owned news agency RIA.
According to one source, it was “natural” for the appointment to go unannounced while Russia is engaged in what it refers to as its special military operation in Ukraine.
Although there has been speculation that Osipov was fired after the Moskva flagship was sunk on April 14, the naval commander seems to have been employed up until recently.
Osipov was reportedly “not in the mood” to appear at the Red Square “victory parade” as a result of the loss of the flagship, according to Moscow.