Russia has blamed Ukraine for the killing of Darya Dugina. But could it actually be Vladimir Putin who was behind the car bomb?
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'Putin has that habit'
Economist and author Anders Åslund believes Russian special services to be responsible for Darya's murder. He wrote, as reported by Newsweek:
Since Korotchenko, who is close to the [General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation], blames the Ukrainian special services for the murder of Darya Dugina, we can be pretty sure that it was carried out by Russian special services. These people avoid the truth as the devil holy water.
Åslund then tweeted that Putin 'has that habit' and questioned why Ukraine would carry out such an attack:
Thank you, all Twitter colleagues, especially @OlgaNYC1211. 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?
— Anders Åslund (@anders_aslund) August 21, 2022
Tom Tugendhat, a British member of parliament, tweeted that Putin might have targeted Dugin due to recent criticism of the Kremlin:
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.https://t.co/IvHxMdOOn8
— Tom Tugendhat (@TomTugendhat) August 22, 2022
Historian Yuri Felshtinsky told The Daily Beast that he thinks the bombing 'was organized, it seems, by the Russian security services,' and doesn't believe Ukraine to be responsible:
The Ukrainian special services, involved in a deadly battle with the aggressor on the territory of Ukraine, are unlikely to be able to send their officers to Moscow to organize terrorist attacks there.
Ruslan Trad, a security researcher at the US think tank Atlantic Council, told Newsweekthat the Russian state and its proxies have used murder for political purposes before. He said:
Undoubtedly, this will not be the last such episode in Russian history and an internal order should not be ruled out by one of the security agencies.
An attempt to reignite the war
Meanwhile, Sergej Sumlenny—a German political expert with a particular focus on Russia and Eastern Europe—said to Newsweek that Dugina may have been killed by theFederal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) in an effort to intensify the war.
According to Sumlenny, this would help eliminate opposition to the war and spur on those who want revenge. He said:
Because the picture which they broadcast is a picture of a young innocent girl who was killed by evil Nazis from Ukraine. And that's a strong image I must say.
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