Daughter of Putin's Ally Killed

On Saturday, Russian journalist Darya Dugina died when the vehicle she was driving exploded near Moscow. Dugina’s father, ultra-nationalist Alexander Dugin, is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Dugina and Dugin were attending a festival near Moscow where Dugin, a philosopher, gave a lecture. While the two planned on leaving together, their plans changed at the last minute. Investigators reported that explosives were placed under the Toyota Land Cruiser, Dugina was driving.

This prompted the Russian Secret Service(FSB) to launch an investigation into Dungia’s murder. On Monday, the FSB made a statement claiming the crime “was prepared and committed by Ukrainian secret services.” The FSB also claimed that they found the alleged perpetrator Natalia Vovk, a Ukraine citizen. According to the FSB, Vovk and her daughter escaped to Estonia on Sunday after the attack.

The FSB statements prompted responses from the Estonia foreign ministry, which stated they couldn't verify the claims made by the FSB. Mykhailo Podolyak, a top advisor for Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, refuted the statement made by the FSB and claimed that Russia lives in a “fictional world.”

Konstantin Malofeev, a family friend of Dugin, published a statement on Dugin’s behalf stating Dugina’s killing was “a terrorist act by the Ukrainian Nazi regime.” This comes as a reference to the notion that the Russian leadership believes there is a powerful Nazi presence within Ukraine, which was used as a reason for Russian invading Ukraine.

Dugin stated through telegram, “My daughter Darya Dugina was brutally murdered in front of me. She was a beautiful Orthodox woman, patriot, war reporter, an expert for Central TV, and philosopher. We only need our victory. My daughter sacrificed her young woman’s life to its altar. So please, achieve it!”

In response to Dugina’s death, President Putin posthumously awarded Dugina the Order of Courage and called her death“a vile cruel crime.”