Russian authorities are investigating the cause of a car explosion in Darya Dugina’s Toyota Land Cruiser. Darya Dugina, a political scientist and daughter of Alexander Dugin who is pro-Putin, was killed in the explosion in Moscow.
A car-bomb attack outside Moscow is suspected to have killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue who advocates Russia absorbing Ukraine, Russian state investigators said https://t.co/22yoWoUB1i pic.twitter.com/NSfSYkF9vQ
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 21, 2022
According to the Russian state-owned news agency TASS, the bombing took place on Saturday at 9 p.m.
The bomb was placed in an SUV and set off on a street. It killed the female driver. The Russian Investigative Department identified Dugina as the victim.
Dugina’s father is known as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “Spiritual Guide” and serves as a major influence on Putin; he was given the epithet “Putin’s Brain” by the magazine Foreign Affairs, CNN reports.
Russian Presidential Press Service, Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP
According to TASS, Russian authorities are currently investigating Dugina’s explosion to determine if Ukraine was involved. Mikhail Podolyak is the Ukrainian presidential advisor and has denied that Ukraine was involved.
“I stress that Ukraine certainly did not have anything to do with it,” Podolyak said in the Ukrainian edition Liga.net. TASS reported.
Volodymyr Zilenskyy, President of Ukraine, warned that Putin could now escalate Russia’s aggression in retaliation for Dugina’s death.
“We must be aware that Russia may try to do something extremely cruel or especially evil this week. It has done it every week for six months – it was disgustingly cruel and obscene.”
He said that the enemy, the Ukrainians, has the main task of humiliating us, devaluing our heroes, and spreading despair, fear, and conflict. It is important to not succumb to enemy pressure even for a second. It is not necessary to be weak or to give up.
Zelenskyy expressed concern about Russia targeting the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia. Analysts believe this could lead to “Chernobyl with steroids.”