Daughter of Putin ally killed in Moscow car explosion

Moscow, Aug 21: Darya Dugin, the 29-year-old daughter of Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, was killed in a car explosion in Moscow.

Aleksandr Dugin, dubbed "Putin's brain," has been the driving force behind Russia's military operations in Ukraine.

Russia's state-owned TASS news agency reported that Darya Dugina died after her car exploded. The reports have not been confirmed by foreign media.

"This was the father's vehicle. Darya was driving another car but she took his car today, while Alexander went in a different way," Andrey Krasnov, Dugin's friend and the head of the Russian Horizon social movement, told TASS.

"He returned, he was at the site of the tragedy. As far as I understand, Alexander or probably they together were the target."

Some Russian media reports cited witnesses as saying the vehicle belonged to her father and that he had decided at the last minute to travel in another car.

No suspects were immediately identified. But Denis Pushilin, president of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic that is a focus of Russia's fighting in Ukraine, blamed it on "terrorists of the Ukrainian regime, trying to kill Alexander Dugin."

Alexander Dugin is an ultra-nationalist political philosopher who is seen as a key architect behind the current worldview of top Kremlin lawmakers.

He is also seen as having influence over President Vladimir Putin himself.

With agency inputs