Alexander Dugin is one of the most influential ideologists in Russia. On Sunday night, Russian media reported the death of his daughter in a car explosion.
Russian political editor and analyst Darga Dugina was killed after a car exploded outside Moscow late on Saturday. write it Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
Dugina, daughter of the Russian political thinker Alexander Dugin The man who has been described, among other things, as “Putin’s brain”. He studied at leading Russian universities and was a prominent figure on Russian television, as he describes American CBS.
Videos on social media of what is supposed to be the crime scene show large flames and debris on the ground, as well as fire crews arriving at the crime scene.
One clip, which has not been verified, shows a visibly angry man standing next to him in shock. Many media reported that the man is Alexander Dugin.
It is said that Dugin and his daughter were on their way home from a literary festival in the village of Zakharovo outside Moscow when the explosion occurred.
Russian newspaper Izvestia He writes that Dugin was supposed to be in the car that exploded, but that he switched to another car before leaving the festival.
He himself will be hospitalized with an unknown injury, According to the same newspaper.
The Russian police confirmed that it was the bomb that caused the explosion, and that they were investigating the matter, according to Izvestia.
Blame it on “Ukrainian Terrorists”
She is a frequent and high-profile contributor to misinformation regarding Ukraine and the Russian invasion on many online platforms, the British government wrote. When they imposed sanctions on Dogena earlier this year.
To RIA, Denis Pushlin, head of the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic of Ukraine region, said Dugina was killed in what he called the attack of “Ukrainian terrorists”.
– Park Dargah in memory. She is a real Russian girl, says Puzhilin, who claimed on Sunday night on Telegram that Dugina’s father was the target of the attack. The claim has not been confirmed.
Pål Kolstø, a UiO professor with Russia as a private field, for his part believes that Ukraine is unlikely to be behind the attack.
Dogen might be the target. But I wonder what the Ukrainians will gain from such an attack. Things are not going well in the West, on which they depend for war support.
In 2017, Kolstø published the book The new Russian nationalism With researcher Nupi Helge Blakkisrud, where Alexander Dugin performed the character several times.
– He has many opponents in his homeland too. It’s hard to say if he had enemies who wanted to kill him, but there was a lot of violence in Russia, says the professor, before emphasizing that little was still known about the attack.
Who is Alexander Dugin?
In 1997 he wrote the book foundations of political geographyIn it, he presents his ideas on how Russia should set out to gain more power in the world — including through disinformation and annexation.
He also claims that Russia is incompatible with liberal democracy in the West. Dugin believed that Russia should subjugate all of Europe and Asia into a huge empire. Philosophy is called Neo-Eurasianism.
You could say he’s talking straight from his chest, but it’s often about weird, high-flying things, says Pål Kolstø.
– But he was quite clear about Ukraine: he adds that most of the country should become part of Russia.
In a book from 1997, Dugin wrote, among other things, that Ukraine has no geopolitical significance, no special cultural significance, or ethnic exclusivity, according to CBS.
Dugin’s arguments reverberate in much of the Kremlin’s propaganda work since before the invasion of Ukraine in February of this year, including the article “What Russia Should Do with Ukraine”. There the author believes that Perhaps the name “Ukraine” should be removed in order to “liberate” the country.
In a column in the Washington Post Writer Tara Isabella Burton notes that Dugin used the term “novorossia” (“New Russia” jou.anm.) about, among others, Luhansk and Donetsk in Ukraine, and that the term became part of Putin’s propaganda language shortly thereafter.
Pål Kolstø, for his part, believes that there are many who overestimate the relationship between Dugen and Putin, although their speech has some common features:
– It may be true that Dugin called for such an attack as Putin carried out in February. On the other hand, it is a somewhat loose cannon that the Putin regime has been careful not to associate too closely with.
I think it is still wrong to consider him “Putin’s advisor” or the architect behind what is happening. After all, it is Putin who changed between 2014 and today, while Dugin will stick to his anti-Ukrainian stance from the start, says Kolesto.
approved by the West
Father and daughter were punished by many western countries. The US Department of Commerce describes Dargina’s work as editor for United World International (USW).
According to the American authorities, the USW has been spreading disinformation for a long time about, among other things, the war in Ukraine. The site is also associated with Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was sanctioned by the United States for trying to influence the US democratic elections.
– UWI suggested in 2022 that Ukraine would “collapse” if the country were to be integrated into NATO, as was said in US Department of Commerce rationale for sanctions They filed against it earlier this year.
They also believe that Dugina acted as a representative for his father, who was already sanctioned by the United States in 2015. This was based on the fact that they believed he was linked to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014.
Furthermore, they describe Dugin’s Geopolitica website:
A website that serves as a platform for Russian extremist nationalists, so they can spread disinformation and propaganda targeting Western and other audiences.
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