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Russia’s Internal Security Service (FSB) has officially blamed Ukraine for the Moscow car bombing that killed the daughter of Putin’s ally Alexander Dugin on Monday.
Ukrainian officials have denied any involvement. Russia’s FSB said the attack targeted Dugin and was “prepared and carried out by Ukrainian special services.”
Intelligence agencies say the attack was carried out before Ukrainian citizen Natalia Vofuk fled to Estonia. Vovk reportedly entered Russia with his 12-year-old daughter Sofia Shaban on July 23 and reportedly rented an apartment in the same building as Dugina.
The FSB alleges that Vovk used three separate license plates during his stay in Moscow. She entered Russia using a plate of the Ukrainian rebel state, the so-called Dontesque People’s Republic. According to the FSB, while in Moscow, she used a Kazakhstan plate and a Ukrainian plate to flee her country.
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Nationalist commentator Daria Dugina, 29, died Saturday night while driving her father’s SUV. She left her festival after hearing her father, a top Russian philosopher and political theorist, give a speech about Russian traditions and history.
Dugin is one of Russia’s top supporters of invading Ukraine and has earned the nickname “Putin’s Brain” for his close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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Dugin was reportedly supposed to be in the car with his daughter, but chose to take another one at the last minute.
The FSB’s word shouldn’t be taken entirely, and incentives for quick results may be stifling organizational accuracy, says strategic intelligence expert and author of ‘Putin’s Playbook’ Rebekah Koffler told Fox News Digital.
“We can’t trust the FSB completely, but that doesn’t mean their preliminary investigation into Daria Dugina’s death is wrong,” Koffler said. “The FSB is under tremendous pressure to deliver some quick results given that this is such a high-profile death.
“Daria Dugina is no ordinary individual. She, like her father, is an ideological icon of the Eurasian spin-off ‘Russian World’, whose father is its thought leader,” she said. Added. “It’s the ideology that Putin bases his entire geopolitical and security strategy on. Putin is almost certainly heavily invested in this investigation and wants to show a quick response. Possibly erroneous analysis.”
Ukraine has asked government officials to stay home this week for fear of retaliatory attacks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had already warned on Saturday that Russia might plan something “especially nasty” as Ukraine prepares to celebrate its independence day on Wednesday.
“We must be aware that this week Russia may try to do something particularly nasty, especially cruel. This is our enemy. But any week in these six months , Russia always did the same thing – disgust and cruelty,” Zelensky said in a video speech on Saturday.
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“One of the main tasks of the enemy is to humiliate us Ukrainians, to belittle our capacity to be our heroes, to spread despair and fear, to spread conflict. Don’t roll yourself up or show weakness in the middle of it,” he added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.