Putin's close aide Aleksander Dugin could have been the target of explosion: Report

Moscow [Russia], August 21 (ANI): After the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin's close aide killed in a car explosion in Moscow, several reports have pointed out that Aleksander Dugin himself could have been the target of the explosion in place of his daughter Daria Dugina.

Quoting Andrey Krasnov, the head of the Russian Horizon social movement and the person familiar with her, TASS news agency reported that Darya Dugina died as a result of the car explosion in the Moscow Region.

"Yes, a very adverse event; I knew Darya personally," Krasnov said on Sunday. The exploded car belongs to Alexander Dugin, he noted.

"This was the father’s vehicle. Darya was driving another car but she took his car today, while Alexander went in a different way. He returned, he was at the site of the tragedy. As far as I understand, Alexander or probably they together were the target," Krasnov said further, as per the Russian news agency.

Meanwhile, citing a news outlet Baza’s Telegram channel, New York Post reported that the far-right ideologue’s daughter was instantly killed when a bomb went off that was intended to take out her father.

Buzz on social media shows that the Ukraine war mastermind was the main target.

"So it looks like Dugin himself was the target of the vehicle explosion in Moscow. Russian Baza site says Alexander Dugin was supposed to be in the car but changed his plan last minute," another stated.

A car caught fire in the Odintsovsky District in the Moscow region, a law enforcement source confirmed to Sputnik. Darya Dugina, 29, had been driving for about 10 minutes after leaving the “Tradition” music and literature festival when her car exploded, Baza reported as cited by New York Post.

Her father was supposed to take the car but got in a different vehicle at the last moment.

"Daria Dugina was returning from the Tradition festival. Together with Daria Dugina, her father, a philosopher and public figure, as well as the ideologist of the Russkiy Mir, Alexander Dugin, was supposed to ride in the car. However, at the last moment, Alexander allegedly got into another car," a social media user wrote.

The daughter of Alexander Dugin, a Russian political philosopher and analyst, could have been killed in the accident, the Russian news agency reported citing the Russian Kommersant newspaper.

Dugin is said to be the man behind the Russian "military operations" in Crimea and Ukraine and often described by some western analysts as "Putin's brain."

Dugin has reportedly arrived on the scene of the accident on Mozhayskoye Highway.

According to several Russian media reports, an explosion preceded the accident involving the Land Cruiser Prado vehicle.

Daria Dugina was included in UK sanctions lists in July this year. Dugin himself was sanctioned by the EU, US and Canada in 2014 and 2015.

According to New York Post, Russian authorities are investigating whether or not the explosion was a targeted hit on Alexander Dugin, a well-known political philosopher and proponent of the “Russian World” and “New Russia” ideologies that some have said pushed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. (ANI)