Putin ally Aleksandr Dugin says 'enemies of Russia meanly, stealthily killed' his daughter in car explosion

• The Russian daughter of a prominent Vladimir Putin ally was killed last weekend in a car bombing.

• Aleksandr Dugin said "enemies of Russia meanly, stealthily killed" his daughter Darya Dugina.

• Dugin is an ultranationalist thinker and political philosopher — often hailed as "Putin's Brain."

Aleksandr Dugin, a political philosopher and prominent ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Russian enemies "meanly" and "stealthily" killed his daughter in a car bombing over the weekend.

Often referred to as "Putin's Brain," nationalist thinker Dugin issued his first comments on Monday reflecting on the death of Darya Dugina, who was killed on Saturday night after her Toyota exploded while she was driving through the outskirts of Moscow.

"She was a beautiful Orthodox girl, a patriot, a military correspondent, an expert on central channels, and a philosopher. Her speeches and reporting have always been profound, grounded and restrained. She never called for violence and war," Dugin said in a statement shared to social media by an associate and translated by CNN.

"But we, our people, cannot be broken even by such unbearable blows," he continued. "Our hearts yearn for more than just revenge or retribution. It's too small, not the Russian way."

"We only need our Victory. My daughter laid her maiden life on her altar. So win, please," he said, calling for Russian forces to win the ongoing Ukraine war. 

Dugin's ultra-nationalist and anti-Western philosophy helped shape Putin's goals of Russian expansion — which ultimately fueled the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Dugin and his daughter, who was 29 and supported the Ukraine war, have both been sanctioned by the US. 

Russia's FSB security service claimed to have quickly investigated Darya Dugina's assassination and on Monday blamed the explosion on Ukraine's security service. Russian state media cited the FSB in reports claiming that a Ukrainian citizen — along with her 12-year-old daughter — were responsible for the attack. Reports claimed the pair then fled to Estonia.

Ukraine has denied any involvement in Dugina's death.

Mikhail Podolyak, a top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, tweeted on Monday that efforts to blame Ukraine for the car bombing are "useless."

"Ru-propaganda lives in a fictional world: [Ukrainian] woman and her 12-year-old child were 'assigned' responsible for blowing up the car of propagandist Dugina. Surprisingly, they did not find the "Estonian visa" on the spot. Vipers in [Russian] special services started an intraspecies fight," he wrote in a separate tweet.

Russian television, meanwhile, has used Darya Dugina's death as a call for violence against Kyiv. It comes after Zelenskyy warned that Moscow may try to ramp-up attacks ahead of Ukraine's Independence Day.

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