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Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded one of Russia’s highest decorations to a woman who was killed in a car bombing outside Moscow late Saturday that may have been intended for her father, an ultranationalist who has sometimes been called “Putin’s brain.”
On Monday, Mr. Putin harshly condemned the attack that killed 29-year-old Daria Dugina, a journalist and political scientist who is known as a strong backer of the Kremlin in her own right. In a statement published on the Kremlin’s website, Mr. Putin called the car bombing “a despicable, cruel crime” that ended the life of someone he called a “bright, talented person with a real Russian heart.”
“She honestly served the people [and] the Fatherland,” Mr. Putin said. “She proved by deed what it means to be a patriot of Russia.”
But the gesture did nothing to quell questions in Moscow and Kyiv over who masterminded the attack, who was the target, and how it will affect a war about to mark its grim six-month anniversary on Wednesday.
Like her father, hard-line ideologue Alexander Dugin, Ms. Dugina was an outspoken defender of Russian culture and power, and supported Mr. Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine in late February. News about her death comes as Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Kyiv’s top Army general, disclosed Monday during a forum with military veterans that almost 9,000 “Ukrainian heroes” have been killed so far, according to Ukraine’s Interfax news agency.
Russian losses are estimated to be far higher, but it was the first update on the cost of the war for Ukraine in months for the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
SEE ALSO: Russia blames Ukrainian spy agency for death of prominent pro-invasion figure
Placing blame
Russian investigators said Ms. Dugina died when a bomb hidden in her Toyota Land Cruiser detonated on a highway outside Moscow. The explosive device had been planted under the vehicle’s floorboard on the driver’s side, according to the state-owned TASS news agency.
Less than a full day after the bombing attack, Russian intelligence officials pointed the finger of responsibility at Ukraine and said they had identified the culprit, a Ukrainian woman named Natalya Vovk who allegedly fled to Estonia after the assassination.
