Darya Dugina

Darya Aleksandrovna Dugina (Да́рья Алекса́ндровна Ду́гина; 15 December 1992 – 20 August 2022), also known under the pen name Daria Platonova (Дарья Платонова), was a Russian journalist, political scientist, and activist.

She was the daughter of Aleksandr Dugin, a supporter of Vladimir Putin and a far-right political philosopher, whose support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine she shared.

She was killed in August 2022 in a car bombing on the outskirts of Moscow.

Darya Dugina was born on 15 December 1992 in Moscow, Russia.

She was the daughter of Aleksandr Dugin and his second wife, philosopher Natalya Melentyeva.

In 2012/2013, while studying at Moscow State University, she was an intern at Bordeaux Montaigne University, specializing in Ancient Greek philosophy.

Her MSU degree "focused on the political philosophy of late Neo-Platonism".

After university, she worked as a journalist, writing for the state-controlled media outlet RT and the pro-Kremlin conservative channel Tsargrad, using the pen name Daria Platonova.

She was affiliated with the International Eurasian Movement, and worked for them as a political commentator.

According to the United States Department of the Treasury, which added her to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List on 3 March 2022, she was the chief editor of a disinformation website called United World International which states it is owned by Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, who also controlled the state-backed Wagner Group.

At the same time, she served as a press secretary of her father.

Dugina was an outspoken supporter of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In particular, she claimed that the war crimes against Ukrainian civilians by the Russian army during the invasion were staged.

She mentioned that the war in Ukraine "serves to break the bridges of interaction between Russia and Europe, a struggle between two worldviews."

In June 2022, she visited occupied Donetsk and Mariupol.

Dugina visited the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, where she collaborated with British journalist Graham Phillips, who also worked for Russian state media.

On 4 July 2022, she was sanctioned by the British government, which accused her of being a "frequent and high-profile contributor of disinformation in relation to Ukraine and the Russian invasion of Ukraine on various online platforms."

She responded by saying that she is an ordinary journalist and should not have been sanctioned.

Dugina was killed on 20 August 2022, when her car exploded on Mozhayskoye Highway in the settlement of Bolshiye Vyazyomy outside Moscow around 21:45 local time.

She was driving to Moscow after attending the annual festival "Tradition," which describes itself as a family festival for art lovers.

The "Tradition" festival is held at the Zakharovo estate, approximately 1 km north of Bolshiye Vyazyomy.

Investigators said an explosive device was attached to the underside of the car.

It is unclear whether she was targeted deliberately, or whether her father, who had been expected to travel with her but switched to another car at the last minute, was the intended target, or whether the intention might have been to kill both.

Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of Russia's State Duma now living in exile in Ukraine, claimed that a Russian partisan group was responsible for the attack, and that the hitherto unknown group calls itself National Republican Army (NRA) (Национальная республиканская армия (НРА)).

Ponomarev claims the NRA is an underground group working inside Russia, dedicated to removing Putin from power.

He has subsequently claimed it is a "network" of clandestine cells.

In Ponomarev's narrative to the Kyiv Post, the group has previously carried out anonymous arson attacks on military induction centers, then shifted to targeting Dugin and Dugina as "something high-profile for which they could become well known."

He elaborated that a contact in the group told him a week before the assassination to expect "something big," followed by instructions on the day of the event to "watch the news."

Following news coverage of the assassination, Ponomarev claims that he was provided evidence of the group's responsibility.

Ponomarev added that his sources believed two persons (i.e., both Dugin and Dugina) were in the targeted car.

From Ponomarev's statement, it is unclear whether she was targeted deliberately, or whether her father was the intended target, or whether the intention might have been to kill both.

Ponomarev gave a similar account to Radio NV (Радіо НВ), adding that his contacts "sent certain photos to prove their involvement."

Along with the claim of responsibility for the assassination, Ponomarev aired the organization's manifesto on his media outlet "February Morning" (Утра Февраля) and hailed it as "a new page in Russian resistance to Putinism. New—but not the last."

Later confronted with the news of the FSB's accusation of Ukrainian involvement, Ilya Ponomarev told the Meduza news outlet that his purported sources in the National Republican Army deny the claimed Ukrainian being the perpetrator while leaving ambiguous whether she may have had a role.

In both Meduza and a message to his Telegram channel "Rospartisan" (Роспартизан), Ponomarev appeared to take credit for her exfiltration from Russia at the request of unnamed "friends".

Following his announcement of support for the assassination and the NRA, Ponomarev claims to have been disinvited from a planned meeting of Russian dissidents.

, Associated Press and The Guardian articles concerning the death of Dugina and its aftermath state that the claim of a National Republican Army responsibility cannot be confirmed.

A 22 August 2022 report from Reuters says that "Ponomarev's assertion and the group's existence could not be independently verified."

In an interview with Ponomarev for Meduza, both the interviewer Svetlana Reiter and the editor note skepticism about his claims about the Russian NRA, his accommodations of Putin in his Duma career, and the source of his wealth.

Separately, Meduza managing editor Kevin Rothrock questioned Ponomarev's integrity, the existence of the NRA, and implied that both Dugin and Dugina were "civilians" who should not have been targeted.