Vladimir Putin may be behind car bomb that killed 'his Rasputin's daughter' in Moscow, Russia critics say
22 August 2022, 13:35 | Updated: 22 August 2022, 20:49
Russia critics have pointed the finger at Vladimir Putin's government over an assassination attempt on his "Rasputin", whose daughter was killed in a car bomb.
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Alexander Dugin is thought to be the intended target of the attack that destroyed a SUV which his 29-year-old daughter Daria Dugina was driving on Saturday night.
He is sometimes dubbed "Putin's brain", given how his ultranationalist and fascist views have sometimes appeared in Kremlin propaganda.
But it has now been suggested in the West that Putin could have been behind the attack, despite Mr Dugin's alleged influence on the Russian president.
Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the House of Commons' foreign affairs committee, said: "In recent months, Dugin had been criticising the Kremlin for being too soft.
"Given the terrorism used by Putin over decades - Beslan, Nemtsov, Litvinienko, to name but a few incidents - means the list of suspects should include his own government."
In a letter expressing condolences to Mr Dugin and his wife that was released by the Kremlin, Mr Putin denounced the "cruel and treacherous" killing of Ms Dugina, hailing her as a "bright, talented person with a real Russian heart - kind, loving, responsive and open".
Mr Putin said Ms Dugina "honestly served people and the Fatherland, proving what it means to be a patriot of Russia with her deeds".
He posthumously awarded Ms Dugina the Order of Courage, one of Russia's highest medals.
Russia had accused Ukraine of being behind the attack but on Sunday Kyiv's presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak denied any involvement.
The blast happened on the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday night, in which Mr Dugin was seen holding his head in his hands near the smouldering wreck.
He has reportedly been taken to hospital after apparently having a heart attack.
Anders Åslund, an economist and author who has written about Putin and Russia, said: "All told, it appears most likely that Putin killed Darya Dugina. He has that habit. The videos at her house were out.
"Aleksandr Dugin was supposed to be in the car. Why would Ukraine waste resources on such a target?"
Mr Dugin helped popularise the concept of "Novorossiya" (New Russia), which has been invoked to try and justify the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and Russia'S support for separatists in the east of the country before it launched a full-scale war.
His influence on Putin is not clear but his work often comes up in Russian propaganda.
He views Russia as a country of piety and traditional values and has promoted authoritarianism, in contrast with the liberal democracies of the increasingly atheistic West.
Read more: Downtown Kyiv turned into open-air museum of burned-out and captured Russian tanks
Ms Dugina, who espoused similar views to her father on the nationalist TV channel Tsargrad, was sanctioned by the US in March because she was chief editor of a disinformation website called United World International.
Russia has blamed Ukraine for the attack, while Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, denied Kyiv was behind the attack, saying it is not a "criminal state".
