Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian theorist who advocates Russia absorbing Ukraine, was killed in an alleged car bomb attack outside Moscow on Sunday, according to Russian officials.

According to authorities, Dugina, the daughter of legendary ideologue Alexander Dugin, was killed on Saturday evening when a suspected explosive device burst in the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving.

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According to some Russian media sources, the explosion occurred as Dugina was returning from a cultural fair she had attended with her father. They said the car belonged to Dugin, who had decided to travel in another car at the last minute.

There is speculation in the Russian state media that Dugin was the intended target of the attack.

Who is Alexander Dugin?

Alexander Dugin is often known as Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s brain and Putin’s Rasputin.

Dugin has long called for the union of Russian-speaking and other areas, including Ukraine, into a new and massive Russian empire. His 1997 book Foundations of Geopolitics: Russia’s Geopolitical Future is regarded as the foundation of Putin’s expansionist foreign policy.

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His ideas are claimed to have encouraged Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, as well as the full-fledged invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24.

He has always advocated for Russia to be more assertive on the global scene, and he supports Russia’s war on Ukraine.

He was the primary organiser of the National Bolshevik Front, the Eurasia Party, and their progenitor, the National Bolshevik Party, which was banned by a Russian court in 2005. He also advised State Duma Speaker Gennadiy Seleznyov and Sergey Naryshkin, a senior member of the ruling United Russia party.

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From 2009 to 2014, he was the chairman of the Department of Sociology of International Relations at Moscow State University, but he resigned owing to a reaction to statements about violence in Ukraine.

His daughter, a journalist and political analyst had similar beliefs and appeared on the nationalist TV channel Tsargrad on a regular basis to endorse Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

Both the father and daughter were sanctioned by the United States and the United Kingdom.

The US Treasury claimed in March that Dugin, who was already sanctioned following Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2015, operates Geopolitica, a website that helps Russian ultra-nationalists to promote disinformation and propaganda.