Daughter of Putin Ally Killed in Car Bombing

Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

Russian authorities are investigating a car bombing that went off in a Toyota Land Cruiser belonging to Darya Dugina, political scientist and daughter of the pro-Putin political philosopher Alexander Dugin. Dugina died in the explosion near Moscow.

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The bombing took place on Saturday at 9 p.m. local time in the Odintsovo urban district near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy, according to TASS, the Russian state-owned news agency.

The bomb was allegedly installed in the SUV that exploded on a public road and killed the female driver, whom the Russian Investigative Committee’s Main Investigative Department identified as Dugina.

Dugina’s father is known as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “Spiritual Guide” and serves as a major influence on Putin; he was given the epithet “Putin’s Brain” by the magazine Foreign Affairs, CNN reports.

Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Zelensky
Russian Presidential Press Service and Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP

Russian authorities are currently investigating the explosion to confirm whether or not Ukraine is tied to Dugina’s death, according to TASS. Ukrainian presidential advisor Mikhail Podolyak has denied the country’s involvement in the blast.

“I stress that Ukraine certainly had nothing to do with it,” Podolyak said in the Ukrainian edition of Liga.net, TASS reports.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Putin may now increase Russia’s aggression in retaliation for Dugina’s death even though Ukraine has not accepted responsibility.

“We should be aware that this week Russia may try to do something particularly nasty, something particularly cruel. Such is our enemy. But in any other week during these six months, Russia did the same thing all the time – disgusting and cruel,” Zelenskyy said in a statement, according to Fox News.

“One of the key tasks of the enemy is to humiliate us, Ukrainians, to devalue our capabilities, our heroes, to spread despair, fear, to spread conflicts…” he added. “Therefore, it is important never, for a single moment, to give in to this enemy pressure, not to wind oneself up, not to show weakness.”

Zelenskyy also noted concerns that Russia may target a Ukrainian nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia, the results of which could be “Chernobyl on steroids,” according to some analysts.

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