Car bomb kills daughter of uncompromising Kremlin ideologue

The daughter of Alexander Dugin, a hard-line Russian ideologist close to President Vladimir Putin, has been killed in a car bomb attack on the outskirts of Moscow, authorities said on Sunday.

According to family members quoted by Russian media, Dugin – a vocal supporter of the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine – was the likely target of the blast when his daughter borrowed his car at the last minute.

Daria Dugina was killed when a bomb planted in the Toyota Land Cruiser went off while she was driving on a highway near the village of Bolshie Vyzyomy, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) outside Moscow, Russia’s investigative committee said in a statement.

Dugina, a journalist born in 1992 who herself openly supported the offensive, died at the scene and a murder investigation was launched, said the committee investigating serious crimes in Russia.

In July Britain put her on a list of sanctioned Russians for allegedly spreading disinformation about Ukraine online.

Dugin, 60, sometimes dubbed “Putin’s Rasputin” or “Putin’s Brain,” is an outspoken Russian ultranationalist intellectual.

He has long advocated the unification of the Russian-speaking territories into a vast new Russian empire and wholeheartedly supports Moscow’s operations in Ukraine.

He was placed on a Western sanctions list after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, a move he also supported.

There was no immediate admission of responsibility for the bombing.

The head of one of the breakaway Ukrainian regions blamed the Kiev authorities for the explosion.

“The terrorists of the Ukrainian regime tried to liquidate Alexander Dugin, but blew up his daughter,” wrote DNR head Denis Pushilin on Telegram.

Advisor to the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak denied that the Kiev authorities were behind the bombing.

“Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with yesterday’s explosion because we are not a criminal state,” he said in a televised address.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram: “If the Ukrainian theory is confirmed… and it has to be verified by the relevant authorities, it will amount to state terrorism by the Kiev regime.”