Vladimir Putin ally's daughter Darya Dugina was allegedly not the intended target of car bomb

On Saturday night, Darya Duginawas killed in a car explosion on the outskirts of Moscow. The daughter of Putin’s so-called ‘brain’ – Alexander Dugin – was sanctioned by the UK in July due to disseminating misinformation about Russia and Ukraine. Despite being disliked by many, speculations are brewing that she was not the intended target of the car bomb.

‘It’s her father’s car’

Dugina’s friend and leader of the Russian Horizon social movement, Andrei Krasnov, believes her father was the intended target of the bomb. According to CNN, he told the Russian news agency, TASS:

Dasha (Darya) drives another car, but she drove his car today, and Alexander went separately.

Although the pair were meant to be in the same car when the explosion went off, Dugina’s father made a last-minute – and ultimately life-saving – decision to travel in a different vehicle, reports BBC.

Ukraine denies responsibility

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, did not hesitate to point the finger at Ukraine, stating that such an act would count as ‘state terrorism’.

According to CNN, she said in a Telegram post:

There have been plenty of facts accumulated over the years: from political calls for violence to the leadership and participation of Ukrainian state structures in crimes.

Ukrainian officials have denied involvement in the explosion. According to BBC, an adviser to the Ukrainian President by the name of Mykhailo Podolyak issued the following statement on television:

Ukraine, of course, has nothing to do with this, because we are not a criminal state, which is the Russian Federation, and even less a terrorist state.

Although Dugin and Dugina were not government officials, both played a prominent role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A murder investigation has begun in Russia in response to Dugina’s death.

The incident undermines Kremlin-enshrined narratives that credit Putin for increased safety and security following the everyday assassinations and car bombings that defined 1990s Russia, says BBC.

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