Eurotopics – Darya Dugina: Who Was Behind the Blast?

The suspected assassination of Darya Dugina, daughter of the Russian ideologue Aleksandr Dugin, is the big topic in Europe today. Dugina’s car exploded just outside Moscow on 20 August. Now the main questions are whether Dugina or her father, a prominent ultra-nationalist, anti-Western ally of Putin, was the real target as well as who was behind the attack.

Today, Europe’s press debates the assassination of the daughter of Putin’s ‘spiritual advisor’. Here are some opinions from a selection of European publications presented by eurotopics.

Not a random victim

Polityka sheds light on Darya Dugina’s background:

“It is highly likely that Dugin was supposed to be killed in the attack too. … Darya Platonova Dugina, however, was not a random victim. … Since her early youth she had been active in organisations led by her father. … Over time, she began writing for Katehon, the think tank he founded, and its website Geopolitika.ru, and she was also a correspondent and regular commentator for Tsargrad TV, of which Dugin is the director. More recently, she took a selfie in the ruins of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. … On the evening she was killed, she was on her way back from attending a far-right rally near Moscow with her father.”

A Russian secret service operation

Darya Dugina was a rather unimportant exponent of Russian propaganda, writes journalist Sergey Vysotsky in Focus.ua:

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“During wartime, priority targets are those whose elimination stands to weaken the enemy. These include high-ranking GRU and FSB [military intelligence and security] officers responsible for the ‘special operation’, heads of arms industry companies, scientists implementing defence programmes, businessmen and other intelligence officers. … I suspect that the attack on a car near Moscow is an action by Russian intelligence services aimed at mobilising their own population and discrediting Ukraine in the eyes of its Western partners.”

Prelude to a new phase of the war

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung also believes it’s not out of the question that Russian forces were behind the attack:

“The violence of the Russian elite has always also been directed inwards. In view of the twisted theories of the Russian propaganda machine, which blames every attack against opponents of the Kremlin on Russia’s enemies seeking to discredit the Kremlin, it is quite conceivable that the attack could be the prelude to a new phase of the war against Ukraine. Leading Russian propagandists are already calling for an attack on ‘decision-making centres’ in response.”

Putin’s entourage no longer safe

Leonid Volkov, one of Navalny‘s comrades-in-arms, says the attack is writing on the wall for those close to Putin:

“The night-time explosion has frightened many genuine ideologues of war and fascism à la Putin. Although they’re much harder to get at than Dugin, who spends his time trundling through local folk festivals without a bodyguard, they’re now starting to feel the heat. … The blast took place in the Odintsovo district near Moscow, right at the epicentre of Putinism – and even there, Ukrainian or Nato saboteurs are apparently operating with remotely detonated bombs? Hmm… Recognising this as an act of terrorism is a serious problem for the FSB, which is already powerless against the epidemic of careless smoking in Crimea.”