The daughter of an ultranationalist Russian who advocates for Russia to absorb Ukraine was killed Saturday evening in a suspected car bomb attack outside Moscow, Russian state investigators said Sunday.
Darya Dugina, daughter of prominent ideologue Alexander Dugin, was killed after a suspected explosive device detonated the Toyota Land Cruiser she was traveling in, Moscow region investigators said in a statement.
Russian state news agency TASS quoted Andrei Krasnov, someone who knew Dugina, as saying the vehicle belonged to his father and was likely the intended target.
The father and daughter had attended a festival outside Moscow and Dugin had decided to change cars at the last minute, Russian government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported.
Open murder case
Television footage accompanying the statement showed investigators collecting debris and fragments from the blast site.
Investigators, who described Darya Dugina as a journalist and political expert, said they had opened a murder case and would conduct forensic examinations to try to determine exactly what had happened.
Journalist and political analyst Darya Dugina, daughter of influential Russian political theorist Alexander Dugin, appears at the Tsargrad TV studio in Moscow in this undated picture. (Tsargrad.tv/Reuters)
They said they were considering “all versions” when determining who was responsible.
Alexander Dugin has long advocated the unification of Russian-speaking and other territories into a great new Russian empire.
He wants that empire to include Ukraine, where Russian forces are currently conducting what Moscow calls a “special military operation” to demilitarize the country.
The influence of Alexander Dugin, who is on a US sanctions list, over Russian President Vladimir Putin has been the subject of speculation, with some Russia watchers saying his dominance is significant and others who have qualified it as minimal.
Alexander Dugin is seen here on October 18, 2014 at a rally in Moscow, held in support of the Russian-backed breakaway self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. (Moscow News Agency/Reuters)
Darya Dugina, who also went by the name Platonova and was reported by Russian state media to be in her 30s, generally supported her father’s ideas and appeared on state television in her own right to offer support for Russia’s actions in Ukraine
In a statement in March, the US Treasury said that Dugina, the editor-in-chief of the United World International website, who has suggested that Ukraine would “perish” if admitted to the NATO military alliance, had been included in a US sanctions list.