Russia blames Ukraine in car bombing death of prominent nationalist
CBC
Russia's top counterintelligence agency on Monday blamed Ukrainian spy services for organizing the killing of a leading Russian nationalist in a car bombing just outside Moscow.
Darya Dugina, the 29-year-old daughter of Alexander Dugin, a philosopher, writer and political theorist whom some in the West described as "Putin's brain," died when an explosive planted in her SUV exploded as she was driving Saturday night.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), the main KGB successor agency, said that Dugina's killing had been "prepared and perpetrated by the Ukrainian special services."
In a letter expressing condolences to Dugin and his wife that was released by the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the "cruel and treacherous" killing of Dugina, hailing her as a "bright, talented person with a real Russian heart — kind, loving, responsive and open."
Putin added that Dugina has "honestly served people and the Fatherland, proving what it means to be a patriot of Russia with her deeds."
On Sunday, Ukraine's presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak denied any Ukrainian involvement in the killing.
In Monday's statement, the FSB accused a Ukrainian citizen, Natalya Vovk, of perpetrating the killing and then fleeing from Russia to Estonia.
The FSB said Vovk arrived in Russia in July with her 12-year-old daughter and rented an apartment in the building where Dugina lived in order to shadow her. It said that Vovk and her daughter were at a nationalist festival, which Alexander Dugin and his daughter attended just before the killing.
The agency said that Vovk and her daughter left Russia for Estonia after Dugina's killing, using a different vehicle licence plate on their way out of the country.
In a statement released by a close associate, Dugin described his daughter as a "rising star" who was "treacherously killed by enemies of Russia."
"Our hearts are longing not just for revenge and retaliation, it would be too petty, not in Russia style," Dugin wrote. "We need only victory."
Dugin has been a prominent proponent of the "Russian world" concept, a spiritual and political ideology that emphasizes traditional values, the restoration of Russia's global clout and the unity of all ethnic Russians throughout the world. He has vehemently supported Putin's invasion of Ukraine and urged the Kremlin to step up its operations there.
The explosion took place as Dugina was returning from a cultural festival she had attended with her father. Russian media reports cited witnesses as saying the SUV belonged to Dugin and that he had decided at the last minute to travel in another vehicle.
The car bombing, unusual for Moscow since the turbulent 1990s, is likely to aggravate tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
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