Mini Dubisode: The Car Bomb Assassination of Darya Dugina Who Ordered The Hit?



After the Toyota Land Cruiser Daria Dugina was driving exploded on a road 20 miles west of Moscow and burst into flames, Russia has opened a murder investigation into her assassination.

According to TASS, When Dugina "turned onto the Mozhaiskoye road near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemi, there was an explosion, the car caught fire immediately. Forensic experts, investigators and experts in explosive engineering are inspecting the scene and they have found or concluded that approximately 400 grams of TNT were used to cause the explosion. If you like our content please become a patron to get our premium episodes and our public episodes ad-free. 1

Daria’s father is Alexander Dugin, a right wing extremist and ultranationalist, is the figure who “inspired” and advised Putin to invade Ukraine. He helped lay the ideological foundation for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and is referred to as “Putin’s brain” or “the architect of the Ukraine invasion”. He allegedly is Putin’s spiritual advisor, based on his roots in the orthodox church. 2

Darya Dugina’s father invented the concept of Eurasianism – a new flavor of fascism. He is to Putin what Steve Bannon / Alex Jones is to Trump.

In March 2022, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Daria Dugina for her contribution to an article on the United World International website suggesting that Ukraine would "perish" if it is admitted to NATO. Dugina was UWI's chief editor. She also claimed that the atrocities of Bucha were American propaganda, chosen because of the phonological similarity to "butcher," a word she linked to US President Biden calling Putin a "butcher" earlier in March. 3

We are considering three theories regarding who’s behind the assassination of Darya Dugina, based on one simple question: who stands to gain from her death?

  1. Ukraine did it – we explain why that is not the case, in fact this is the last thing Ukraine would do
  2. An inside Russian opposition faction did it to destabilize Putin’s regime and cause unrest – this theory doesn’t hold water either in our opinion.
  3. Putin’s FSB did it, on his orders as he did with the Moscow apartment bombings, the Moscow theater hostage crisis, Litvinenko, Boris Nemtsov and Anna Politkovskaya.

What would Putin stand to gain?

  • Re-energizing popular support for his continued invasion of Ukraine
  • A pretext to escalate tragedies in Ukraine
  • A pretext to justify those war crimes and attacks, as being payback or a response to this assassination – to his people and to the western leaders, United Nations etc
  • Creating a martyr, a new symbol to galvanize the troops
  • An opportunity for him to make some strong worded statements, to come out as a powerful, strong leader who has to double down on killing Ukrainians to keep his own people safe
  • Lastly, a great opportunity to use the grieving father, Aleksandr Dugin, the architect of the war in Ukraine, as a megaphone for his propaganda serving his political goals.

Episode #DubiMeter 9.5


1. Russia Opens Murder Investigation After Blast Kills Daughter of Putin Ally. New York Times. August 2022. 

2. Mohammed Tawfeeq, Josh Pennington, Jonny Hallam and Tara John. Car bomb kills daughter of 'spiritual guide' to Putin's Ukraine invasion. CNN. August 2022. 

3. Annabelle Timsit and Rachel Pannett. A Putin ally’s daughter was killed near Russia’s capital. Washington Post. August 2022. 

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