Russia investigates murder of daughter of key Putin influencer

The daughter of an ultra-nationalist writer who has pushed for Russia’s absorption of Ukraine was killed by a suspected car bomb outside Moscow on Saturday night, according to Russian state investigators.

Investigators work at the site of a suspected car bomb attack that killed Darya Dugina, daughter of ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin, in the Moscow region © Investigative Committee of Russia / via Reuters

Darya Dugina was killed after a suspected explosive detonated on the Toyota Land Cruiser she was travelling in after a concert, investigators said in a statement.

The car exploded on a highway west of Moscow. Investigators have opened a murder investigation.

• Russia's Lavrov walks out of G20 talks as West presses Moscow over Ukraine

Her father, Aleksandr Dugin, is a self-named political philosopher whose views have called for an all-powerful Russia. She broadly supported his ideas, which he wrote about on Geopolitica, a website for Russian ultra-nationalists.

He is a staunch supporter of the war in Ukraine, and while it is not clear what his direct tie, if any, is to President Vladimir Putin, he has been called in the media as “Putin’s Brain.”

Switched cars

According to friends and acquaintances of the family, father and daughter had attended the festival together, but then left separately, switching cars. She had been driving her father’s car when it blew up, according to Russian government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

Dugina, who Russian media said was 30 years old, and used the last name Platonova, was described as a journalist and political expert by investigators. She was editor of United World International website which “suggested that Ukraine would “perish” if it is admitted to NATO”, according to the release.

Both Dugin and Dugina are on the US sanctions list.