Russian authorities said Sunday they had opened a murder investigation after a car bomb killed the daughter of an influential ultra-nationalist philosopher. The investigation believed the crime was pre-planned and was of an ordered nature.
A friend of Dugina’s family told TASS (the state news agency) that he believed her father was the actual target of the blast and that his car was used in the attack.
A Russian foreign ministry official implied that Ukrainian state structures were responsible for the explosion, a claim that Ukrainian authorities have denied.
Ukraine on Sunday strenuously denied any involvement in the car explosion. “We are not a criminal state,” Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said.
Dugan’s car caught fire when she turned onto the Mozhaiskoye highway near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemi. The flames completely engulfed the vehicle, and Dugina lost control because she was driving at high speed.
She claimed that the atrocities committed by Russian forces in the Ukrainian town of Bucha were American propaganda and connected the word “butcher” with the US President calling Putin a “butcher.”
Her father was also sanctioned by the US for threats to the peace, security, stability, or sovereignty of Ukraine.
For more on this story, please consider these sources:
- Ukraine War News: Blast Kills Daughter of Putin Ally; Russia Opens Murder Investigation The New York Times
- Car bomb kills daughter of ‘spiritual guide’ to Putin’s Ukraine invasion – Russian media CNN
- Daughter of top Putin ally Alexander Dugin, who pushed for Ukraine invasion, killed by car bomb outside Moscow Fox News
- Car blast kills daughter of Russian known as ‘Putin’s brain’ Yahoo News
- Daughter of Putin ally Alexander Dugin killed in car bomb in Moscow Guardian News