Murder of ‘Putin’s brain’ daughter shakes Russians

A car bomb attack on the outskirts of Moscow has killed the daughter of a Russian ultranationalist who helped lay the ideological foundations for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The assassination has injected new uncertainty into this six-month-long war, in addition to shaking the Russian elite.

Russian authorities said on Sunday they had opened an investigation into the murder of Daria Dugina, 29, a warmongering political commentator and daughter of philosopher Alexander Dugin, who has long been a leading proponent of an imperialist Russia and who prompted the Kremlin to step up its attack on Ukraine.

Russian state television called the car bomb attack, which took place on Saturday night on a highway and shattered the windows of nearby houses in an affluent suburb of Moscow, a “terrorist act”. This media also reported that the real target of the attack was Alexander Dougin himself. According to the Russian press, the attack instead killed his daughter because he had taken another car at the last minute.

There is no evidence that the attack is linked to the war in Ukraine, but people close to Dugin were quick to claim that Ukraine was behind the bombing. The Kremlin remained silent. An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country played no role in the attack.

Nonetheless, this rare attack on a member of the pro-Kremlin elite — reminiscent of the fiery assassinations of Moscow’s chaotic 1990s — has the potential to further upend Putin’s efforts to prosecute the war in Ukraine while maintaining a sense of normality inside.

It comes in the wake of a number of Ukrainian attacks far behind the frontline in the Russian-controlled Crimean peninsula, and as many of the war’s staunchest supporters call on Putin to launch a new assault. against Ukraine in retaliation.

M^me Dougina was not widely known in Russia, beyond ultranationalist and imperialist circles. But calls for escalation intensified on Sunday after his death, with some suggesting the attack shows the Kremlin may be underestimating enemy strength.

In the absence of concrete information on the perpetrators of the attack, speculation has flourished.

Some Russian Kremlin critics have argued, without evidence, that the attack may have been carried out by pro-war supporters in order to galvanize support for a redoubled military campaign. Others wonder if this is a way to silence those who, like Dugin, want Putin to step up his efforts.

Russia has made only modest progress on the front line in eastern Ukraine, even as Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, showed defiance over the weekend by rolling in its place center of captured and destroyed Russian military equipment.

The attack on Dugina has shone a spotlight on ultranationalist Russians, increasingly visible on social media and state television, who say Putin is still too soft on Ukraine.

While Putin said Monday that Russian forces were advancing “step by step”, some popular pro-war commentators want him to move faster and more aggressively by hitting government buildings in central Kyiv, for example, or by declaring a vast military withdrawal.

Calls for revenge

“It happened in the capital of our motherland,” pro-Kremlin TV host Tigran Keosayan wrote on social media about the assassination of Mr.^me Duguina. Referring to the location of the Ukrainian President’s office, he said: “I don’t understand why there are still buildings standing on Bankova Street in Kyiv. »

The Russian military has threatened to strike at “decision-making centers” in Ukraine in retaliation for attacks on what it considers Russian soil, but it has not followed through on those threats.

Sunday’s calls for revenge underscored how the staunchest supporters of invading Ukraine could become troublesome allies for the Kremlin, especially if the Russian leader chooses not to escalate the war.

“For the Kremlin, anyone ideologized can be both useful and dangerous,” said Marat Guelman, a Russian political expert who advised the Kremlin in the early years of Putin’s rule and is now based in Montenegro. “So far, they are useful. But soon they will become dangerous. »

Dugin has often been described as “Putin’s mastermind”, although the relationship between the two men is opaque and, according to some analysts, exaggerated.

But Dugin has long been one of the most visible proponents of the idea of ​​an imperial Russia at the head of a “Eurasian” civilization locked in an existential conflict with the West. The ultranationalist fringe he once occupied has moved closer in recent years to the political mainstream in Russia.

Putin echoed his philosophy when he declared the start of his invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Russia, Putin said at the time, is fighting a US-led “empire of lies”.

Writing on social media ahead of Saturday’s attack, Dugin said Russia could not win the war unless it put the whole society on a war footing. Russia has “challenged the West as a civilization,” he wrote in that message. “That means we also have to go all the way. »

Duguina in the footsteps of his father

Daria Douguina followed in her father’s footsteps. Appearing on television, radio and a host of websites, she worked as a commentator who combined imperialist views with a jargon-laden political philosophy. She also played a role in forging ties between Russia and the European far right.

Last month, the British government imposed sanctions on M^me Dugina, citing her as a “frequent and high-profile contributor of misinformation in relation to Ukraine and the Russian invasion of Ukraine on various online platforms.”

The United States imposed sanctions on her in March, describing her as the editor of an English-language disinformation site owned by Evgeny Prigozhin, the Russian oligarch known as “Putin’s leader”.

While assassination attempts against Kremlin critics are common — including the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020 — high-profile Putin supporters are rarely targeted. The attack was particularly brazen, as the explosion occurred near the glittering suburb of Rublyovka, home to the sprawling villas of the Russian ruling class.

“Rublyovka is shivering,” pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov wrote on the Telegram social network. “This act of terror is a message for them: be afraid, you could be next. »

This article was originally published in the New York Times.