Ukraine behind car blast that killed Putin's close aide's daughter: US intelligence

Washington: The United States’s intelligence agencies believe that the Ukrainian government authorised the bomb attack near Moscow in August that killed the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s close aide Alexander Dugin, and that it was the father who was the target, not the daughter according to a report by The New York Times.

Darya Dugina, daughter of Russian strategist and ultra-nationalist Alexander Dugin — also known as ‘Putin’s brain’, died in a car explosion outside Moscow while travelling home from an event.

“The closely held assessment of Ukrainian complicity, which has not been previously reported, was shared within the US government last week”, the NYT reported.

The report added that although Ukraine’s forces had shown the potential of such sabotage attacks deep inside Russia, the attack on Dugina was the boldest of such operations. It demonstrated even the most prominent of Russians were not out of reach for Ukrainians.

Moscow said that Ukraine’s special services were behind the assassination. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Ukrainian citizen Natalya Vovk perpetrated the killing and then fled from Russia to Estonia.

US intelligence officials also believe that Aleksander Dugin could have been the target of the explosion instead of his daughter Darya Dugina.

“This was the father’s vehicle. Darya was driving another car but she took his car today, while Alexander went a different way. He returned, he was at the site of the tragedy. As far as I understand, Alexander or probably they together were the target,” TASS quoted Andrey Krasnov, the head of the Russian Horizon social movement, as saying.

The NYT report, published this week,  said the United States took no part in the attack, adding that they were not aware of the operation and would have opposed the killing had they been consulted.

It also says that American officials admonished Ukrainian officials over the assassination.

Darya Dugina, 29, had been driving for about 10 minutes after leaving the “Tradition” music and literature festival when her car exploded, according to an earlier report by NYT. Her father was supposed to take the car but got in a different vehicle at the last moment.

Following the killing of Putin’s close aide’s daughter in Moscow, the United States condemned the targeted killing of civilians, saying it is against this act principally, whether it happens in Kyiv or in Moscow.

“So I don’t have anything to share beyond what you have all heard publicly, and that is that Ukraine has denied any involvement in the attack on this individual. We unequivocally condemn the targeting of civilians,” US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said during a press briefing in August.

“We condemn the targeting of civilians, whether that’s in Kyiv, whether that’s in Bucha, whether that’s in Kharkiv, whether that’s in Kramatorsk, whether that’s in Mariupol, or whether that’s in Moscow. That principle applies around the world,” he added.

With inputs from agencies.