Russia's Federal Security Service accused Ukraine's secret services on Monday of killing Darya Dugina, the daughter of a Russian ultranationalist, according to Russian news media.
According to Russian investigators, Dugina, whose father is prominent ideologue Alexander Dugin, was killed on Saturday evening when a suspected explosive device blew up the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving. Ukraine has categorically denied any involvement.
The act was carried out by a Ukrainian lady born in 1979, according to the FSB.
According to an FSB statement cited by Russian news outlets, the woman and her teenage daughter arrived in Russia in July and spent a month plotting the attack by renting an apartment in the same housing block and investigating Dugina's lifestyle.
The assailant had attended an event outside Moscow on Saturday evening which Dugina and her father were also at, before carrying out a “controlled explosion” of Dugina’s car, and fleeing Russia to Estonia, the FSB was quoted as saying.
There was no immediate response from Kyiv to the FSB statement.
INFLUENCE UNCLEAR
Alexander Dugin, Darya’s father, is an ultra-nationalist ideologue who has advocated violence to achieve the unification of Russian-speaking and other territories in a vast new Russian empire.Darya, who appeared regularly on Russian state TV, broadly endorsed her father’s ideas and was a supporter of what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, which Kyiv and the West cast as an imperial-style war of conquest.
Wednesday will mark six months since Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine.
Dugin’s influence in Russia and proximity to President Vladimir Putin has been the subject of speculation.
Some Russia watchers ascribe him significant sway over Moscow’s foreign policy and say he helped lay the intellectual groundwork for Putin to adopt a more aggressive and expansionist foreign policy. Others have said his impact and influence are minimal. The 60-year-old has never held an official Kremlin role.
Dugin did not respond to questions emailed to him on Sunday at an address listed on the website of the International Eurasian Movement that he founded.