The Russian Investigative Committee, in charge of the main criminal investigations in the country, affirmed on Sunday that the attack had been “pre-planned and sponsored”reports The country. “It was confirmed that an explosive device had been placed under the vehicle on the driver’s side. Daria Dugina died instantly”added the Committee.
Although the investigation has only just begun, observers have little doubt that the target of the attack was Alexander Dugin, who should have been in the car with his daughter: they had attended the day a cultural festival and were to return to Moscow together. At the last moment, Dugin had decided to return with another vehicle.
The self-taught ideologue and philosopher, fierce supporter of the annexation of Ukraine and described – wrongly, according to many Russian specialists – as “brains of the Kremlin”, is known for his ultra-nationalist positions. Positions shared by his daughter, a journalist and political scientist targeted by American and British sanctions for “misinformation about Ukraine”.
If the Kremlin did not comment on the attack, its “hawks” were quick to point the finger at Ukraine, as the leader of the self-proclaimed republic of Donesk, Denis Pushilin, accused on Sunday “the terrorists of the Ukrainian regime” to have tried to “liquidate Alexander Dugin, but blew up his daughter”.
A subject “without interest” for Ukraine
Quoted by the agency TassRussian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stopped short of directly accusing Ukraine, but referred to Pushilin’s statements. “Russian authorities are investigating the death of Daria Dugina. If the Ukrainian track is confirmed – and this hypothesis, expressed by Denis Pushilin, must be verified by the competent authorities – then it will be the policy of state terrorism implemented by the kyiv regime. We will await the results of the investigation”she said.
kyiv has strenuously denied any involvement in the attack, according to the Washington Post : “I insist that we have absolutely nothing to do” with the death of Daria Dugina, hammered Mikhaylo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Questioned by the American daily, the Ukrainian intelligence spokesman had nothing to add. “We don’t even have a comment to make, because this is a topic of no interest for the Ukrainian special services”he said.
The Guardian cites another track, put forward on Sunday evening by Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian parliamentarian expelled for “anti-Kremlin activities” and today settled in kyiv. According to him, the attack would be the work “of a hitherto unknown group of Russian militants”the National Republican Army, which seeks to “overthrow the Putin regime”.
A blow for Putin
For many Western newspapers, whoever sponsored the attack, it is a blow for the Russian president.
“This rare attack on a member of the pro-Kremlin elite – reminiscent of assassinations in Moscow in the chaotic 1990s – may further thwart Mr. Putin’s efforts”wants “making progress in the war in Ukraine while cultivating a semblance of normality” in Russia, analyzes the New York Times.
“Kremlin propaganda keeps repeating that Vladimir Putin brought stability and security to Russia after the turbulent 1990s, when car bombings and assassinations were commonplace”adds the BBC. “This car bomb in the Russian capital torpedoes this speech”.
For Russia specialist Mark Galeotti, who writes an opinion column in The SpectatorSaturday’s attack “is just one more clue to the subterranean instabilities and weaknesses of a regime that seeks to appear invincible”.
“Whether it reflects a serious failure of the Russian security apparatus, or the tensions and rivalries within it, it will convince nationalists […] that the regime is not living up to its own rhetoric and that it may be weaker than it seems”he concludes.