Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin's close aide Alexander Dugin, was killed on Saturday evening while she was returning from an event in the Odintsovsky District of Moscow. As per the Russian media, the father-daughter duo was supposed to travel in the same car, but at the last moment, Aleksandr Dugin changed his mind and shifted to a different vehicle.
Aleksandr Dugin is dubbed 'Putin's Brain', and as per BBC's report, it still remains unclear whether the attack was aimed at him or not. Aleksandr Dugin, 60, is known for his ideological pushing of Putin's agenda.
Who is Aleksandr Dugin?
Aleksandr Dugin, also known as Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin, was born on 7 January 1962. He is a Russian political philosopher, analyst and strategist, and is renowned for his fascist views.
In the 1990s, Dugin rose to fame as a writer for the far-right newspaper Den. Dugin is born in a high-ranking Soviet family and is also called by names such as "Putin's brain" or "Putin's philosopher". People believe that he was the main person in the Kremlin, who was responsible for Russia's annexation of Crimea.
A 1991 manifesto named "The Great War of the Continents" was serialised in the newspaper Den. The manifesto outlined his vision of Russia as an "eternal Rome", which was against the West, whom he described as the "eternal Carthage".
In the early 1990s, Aleksandr's co-founded the National Bolshevik Party. The other co-founder of the party was the controversial punk-pornography novelist Eduard Limonov, combining fascist and communist-nostalgic rhetoric and imagery; edgy, ironic (and not-so-ironic) transgression; and genuine reactionary politics.
The 1997 book "The Foundations of Geopolitics: Russia's Geopolitical Future" was Aleksandr's seminal work. The book received a massive appreciation, and as a result, it was placed at their checkout counters. The book portrayed the strategy for dealing with the West that has become all too familiar.