Russia names second Ukrainian suspect in killing of nationalist's daughter

[August 29, 2022]  (Reuters) - Russia's FSB security service on Monday named another Ukrainian it said was part of a team that assassinated Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian ultra-nationalist who believes Ukraine should be absorbed into a new Russian empire.

Dugina, who like her father Alexander Dugin was a vocal supporter of what Russia calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine, was killed in a car bombing outside Moscow on Aug. 20 in what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a "vile, cruel crime."

Two days after the 29-year-old's murder, the FSB, Russia's main domestic intelligence agency, said it had solved the case, naming a Ukrainian woman it said had trailed Dugina for weeks, rented an apartment in her housing complex and planted the car bomb before fleeing Russia to Estonia - all with Kyiv's backing.

Ukraine, which says Russia is waging an imperial-style war of aggression against it, has denied involvement in the murder of Dugina, who has since been portrayed by pro-Kremlin politicians and by Russian state TV, where she often appeared as a pro-war commentator, as a martyr.

On Monday, the FSB said it had identified what it called another member of a Ukrainian "sabotage and terrorist group" which it said had plotted and carried out the killing.

It said in a statement that the new suspect, a man born in 1978 whom it named and showed CCTV footage of, had helped assemble the car bomb in a rented garage in Moscow and had secured fake documents and number plates for the woman who had planted the bomb on Dugina's car.

Russian political scientist and ideologue Alexander Dugin mourns for his daughter Darya Dugina, who was killed in a car bomb attack, during a memorial service in Moscow, Russia August 23, 2022. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

The man had exited Russia via Estonia a day before the attack, it said.

In an 11-minute video released by the FSB, CCTV footage showed the man entering Russia on July 30, entering and exiting a garage complex in Moscow, collecting what the FSB said were fake number plates, and exiting Russia in the early hours of Aug. 19, the day before Dugina was killed.

CCTV footage also showed the Ukrainian woman accused by the FSB of planting the car bomb walking in an area where cars were parked at a festival Dugina had attended shortly before she was killed.

The FSB said the Ukrainian woman had surveilled Dugina, made sure she had left the festival, and then followed her by car and detonated the car bomb that killed her.

Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has promised "no mercy" for those responsible for Dugina's death.

At a memorial service in Moscow last week, Alexander Dugin said his daughter had fallen on the frontline and called for Russia to secure "victory" in Ukraine in her name.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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