Dugin: The best revenge is a victory against Ukraine

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) yesterday accused Ukrainian secret services of killing Daria Dugina, the daughter of a Russian ultra-nationalist, in a bomb attack near Moscow that President Vladimir Putin called "evil."

Dugina, whose father is a well-known ideologue, Aleksandar Dugin, was killed on Saturday evening when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was blown up by a bomb, according to investigators.

Ukraine denied involvement in the attack, and the adviser to the Ukrainian president, Mihailo Podoljak, called the Russian accusations "propaganda".

Dugina, a media commentator who appeared regularly on state television, was a strong supporter of Russia's actions in Ukraine. Her father, Aleksandar Dugin, 60, has been advocating violence for a long time to achieve the unification of Russophone and other territories in the new Russian empire.

In his first public address since the bomb attack, he said that Daria was savagely killed by Ukraine in front of his eyes.

"Our hearts do not cry out for simple revenge and retribution," wrote Dugin. “We just need a win (against Ukraine). My daughter sacrificed her young life on the altar of victory. Therefore, please win!”

The Russian FSB security service announced that the attack was carried out by a Ukrainian woman born in 1979, whom it named and whose photo and personal data were published on Russian portals. According to the portals, she is connected to the Ukrainian security services and is accused of being a member of the Azov battalion, a unit of the Ukrainian army designated by Russia as a terrorist group.

In response, Azov issued a statement on Telegram stating that the woman named by the FSB was never a member of their unit and accused Russia of spreading lies.

The FSB said the woman and her teenage daughter arrived in Russia in July and spent a month preparing the attack by renting an apartment in the same block of flats where Dugina lived. She drove a mini-cooper through Moscow from which she spied on Dugina and for which she had three different registration plates to avoid being noticed, according to the statement. On Saturday night, she attended an event outside Moscow attended by Dugina and her father before allegedly carrying out a "controlled explosion" of a car driven by Daria Dugina. Then she left Russia and went to Estonia in the same "mini coupe".

The editor of RT proposes another "Skripalj action"

The Russian security services have put the Ukrainian woman on the list of most wanted persons, the TASS agency reported, and Moscow is demanding her extradition from Estonia. Estonia's interior ministry, police and border service said in separate statements that they can share information about individuals entering and leaving Estonia "only in cases prescribed by law," adding that the FSB's allegations do not meet those requirements. The police and the border service said they had not received Russia's request for information on the matter.

Some Russian opposition figures speculate that the assassination may have been orchestrated by forces inside Russia who want to discourage ultranationalists like Dugin from criticizing the Kremlin for what they see as too soft ties to Ukraine.

Putin paid tribute to Dugina as a Russian patriot, calling her murder "evil and cruel," while Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the pro-Kremlin RT media organization, suggested that Russian agents find the woman in Estonia.

"Estonia, of course, will not hand them over," Simonjan wrote on Telegram. "I think we can find professionals who want to admire the domes near Tallinn," she added, apparently alluding to the 2018 attack in England on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal. Britain has accused Moscow of poisoning Skripal and his daughter, and agents suspected of the attack said they visited the city of Salisbury to look at the buildings.

The memorial service for Dugina will be held tomorrow in Moscow, her father said.

Alternative versions

Some Russian opposition figures are skeptical about the speed with which the FSB solved the case and have suggested alternative versions of what may have happened.

Ilya Ponomarayev, a former Russian lawmaker turned Kremlin critic who lives in Ukraine, said Sunday evening that a previously unknown group of Russian militants called the National Republican Army was responsible for Dugina's murder.

Ponomarayev is the only member of the Russian State Duma, the lower house of parliament, who voted against the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and later left the country. Ponomarayev, who runs an online TV station from Kiev aimed at debunking the Kremlin's war narrative, read a manifesto on Sunday that he claims was sent to the lady by the group. The group is said to be dedicated to overthrowing Putin and building a new Russia.

Ponomaraj's claim is only one of a number of possible theories about who killed Dugina and why. Some believe that the target was actually her father. The adviser to the Ukrainian president, Podoljak, said that he believed that the murder was the result of a fight between Russian intelligence services.

"Any attempt to blame Ukraine... for the explosion in the suburbs of Moscow is useless," he wrote on Twitter.

Some Russian opposition figures speculate that the killing may have been orchestrated by forces inside Russia who want to discourage ultra-nationalists like Dugin from criticizing the Kremlin for being, in their eyes, too soft on Ukraine.

The killing could serve as a reason for another offensive against people who are considered internal enemies, they told Reuters.

"Financial Time" columnist Gideon Rahman in an article in which he describes Alexander Dugin as a man who, regardless of whether he was taken seriously in the Kremlin or not, managed to position himself as an international spokesman for the extreme right and the fight against American global hegemony, globalism, claims that the main question now is how the Kremlin will react to the murder of his daughter. Will this result in a more aggressive policy in the war and on the domestic scene?

Accusations that Ukraine was behind the assassination could be used to justify intensified attacks on Kiev, including targeting key government buildings and officials. If the Kremlin decides to stand up to Estonia, demanding the extradition of suspects with threats, then it means that Russia is in conflict with a NATO country, Rhaman points out.

Despite the fact that the Ukrainian government quickly rejected any connection to the murder, this will not sway the opinion of many in Moscow, the FT columnist points out. Extremist nationalists, such as Aleksandar Dugin, have been advocating for Russia to use even more ruthless tactics for a long time, Rahman states and adds that "Dugin specializes in violent and inciting rhetoric that he spreads in theaters and television studios, at a safe distance from real conflicts."

"However, last weekend the front arrived in Moscow. After so much suffering, there are few Ukrainians who will shed a tear for Dugin, the man who in 2014 called on the Russians to "kill, kill, kill" Ukrainians. For others, away from the conflict, it is hard to imagine that anyone deserves to watch their child being killed," concludes Rahman.