Russians accuse ‘Ukraine assassin’

MOSCOW: The Russian nationalist whose daughter was killed in a car bombing has urged Vladimir Putin to take revenge on Ukraine, as Moscow said it had already identified the killer as a “Ukrainian woman” after just one day of inquiries.

Darya Dugina, 29, died when her car, in which her father was meant to be travelling, was blown up near Moscow on Saturday. It is thought the assassins intended to kill her father, Alexander Dugin, an adviser to the President who is known as “Putin’s brain” and is a vocal supporter of his invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Putin called the car bomb attack a “vile crime”, while Mr Dugin labelled it a “terrorist attack carried out by the Nazi Ukrainian regime”.

“But they will not succeed. Our hearts yearn for more than just revenge,” he said. “It’s too petty, it’s not Russian style. We need only our victory. My daughter laid her life on its altar – so please win.”

Former Russian opposition MP Ilya Ponomarev said the National Republican Army – a group opposed to Mr Putin – had claimed responsibility.

Despite that, the Kremlin is putting the blame on Natalia Vovk – a Ukrainian citizen born in 1979 – claiming she had travelled to Russia with her young daughter in July to carry out the attack.

“The crime was prepared and committed by Ukrainian special services,” Russia’s FSB security service said.

The FSB said Ms Vovk had rented an apartment in the same building as Ms Dugina (pictured) for a month and followed her around in a Mini Cooper, for which she used three different licence plates.

She allegedly escaped to Estonia after the explosion.

An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, said the FSB’s version of events was “Russian propaganda”.

No evidence was provided to support the FSB’s claim and the service, once headed by Putin, took just 24 hours to complete what experts said was a complex investigation.