Daria Duguine, daughter of Alexander Dougin, died when the car of his father, an ultra-nationalist Russian intellectual, exploded on Saturday August 20 near Moscow. According to the first elements of the investigation, opened for “homicide”, the vehicle was booby-trapped and exploded while the 29-year-old young woman was driving near the village of Bolshiye Viaziom. While the Russian authorities were quick to mention “the Ukrainian track”, an adviser to the presidency in kyiv denied any Ukrainian involvement in the attack. What do we know about this explosion? Response elements.
Where did the explosion take place?
The explosion occurred around 9 p.m. local time near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy, 40 kilometers southwest of Moscow, the official said. Russian Investigative Committee, in charge of the main criminal investigations in the country. Daria Dougin was on a highway, driving his father’s car, a Toyota Land Cruiser, when it exploded and caught fire. According to the Committee’s press release, the young woman “was killed at the scene”.
According Andrei Krasnov, a relative of Daria Dougincited byRussian state news agency TASS (in English) is Alexander Dougin who was targeted by the explosion. Her daughter had just borrowed her car to return from a festival in Dugin, on the outskirts of the capital, where she had gone with her father. The latter would have decided to change cars at the last minute, reports the Russian government newspaper, Rossiiskaya Gazeta (in Russian).
Who is Alexander Dougin?
Intellectual and ultra-nationalist writer Russian, Alexander Dougin is the promoter of the doctrine “eurasist”, an alliance between Europe and Asia under Russian leadership. He has been targeted since 2014 by European Union sanctions, taken in the wake of the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea over there Russia. Since 2015, he has also been subject to US sanctions. kyiv had also taken measures against this far-right intellectual. Many of his works, including “Ukraine. My war. Geopolitical Journal” and “Eurasian Revenge of the Russia“were banned in Ukraine.
The influence of Alexander Dougin and his closeness to Vladimir Putin are debated. “Some Russian observers say his influence is significant and others call it minimal.“, writes the British press agency Reuters (in English). Indeed, if he has never occupied a official position in the Kremlin, Alexander Dugin supports the annexation of Ukraine by Russia and his concepts have been taken up in rhetoric from regime to justify Russia’s armed intervention in Ukraine. He “actively recruited people with military and combat experience to fight on behalf of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic“, as the leader of the Eurasian Youth Union, according to the washington post.
Who was his daughter?
Daria Dougin born in 1992, was a journalist and political scientist, and a supporter, like her father, of Russian ultra-nationalism and Russian imperial expansion. Francophone, she had spoken publicly in favor of the war in Ukraine and had participated in a press trip to the Donbass organized by the Russian army in June, learned the office of France Télévisions in Moscow.
According to washington post, Daria Dougin was the editor of a disinformation website called United World International, which suggested that Ukraine “would perish” if she was admitted to NATO. She was part of the “list of Russian elites” sanctioned by the United States in March 2022, following the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army.
Where is the investigation?
According to the investigators, an explosive device was placed in the vehicle, and everything suggests that “the crime was planned in advance and ordered”says the Russian Investigative Committee in its statement.
Denis Pushilin, lhe pro-Russian leader of the region self-proclaimed separatist of Donetsk, accused Ukrainian forces of being behind the assassination of Daria Dugin. “Ukrainian regime terrorists tried to liquidate Alexander Dugin, but blew up his daughter”he said on Telegram.
“If the Ukrainian track is confirmed, and it must be verified by the competent authorities, it will be the policy of state terrorism implemented by the kyiv regime”reacted on Telegram the spokesperson for Russian diplomacy Maria Zakharova.
“Ukraine definitely had nothing to do with yesterday’s explosion, because we are not a criminal state”reacted an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mikhaïlo Podoliak.