MOSCOW
\nThe daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue who advocates Russia absorbing Ukraine was killed in a suspected car bomb attack outside Moscow, Russian state investigators said on Sunday.
\nDarya Dugina, daughter of prominent ideologue Alexander Dugin, was killed on Saturday evening after a suspected explosive device blew up the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving, investigators said.
\nThe Russian Foreign Ministry speculated that Ukraine might have been behind the attack. Ukraine denied any involvement.
\nRussia\u2019s TASS state news agency quoted Andrei Krasnov, someone who knew Dugina, as saying the vehicle belonged to her father and that he was probably the intended target.
\nFather and daughter had been attending a festival outside Moscow and Dugin had decided to switch cars at the last minute, Russian government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported.
\nTV footage accompanying a statement by Moscow region investigators showed officers collecting debris and fragments from the spot where the explosion happened.
\nThe statement, which described Darya Dugina as a journalist and political expert, said investigators had opened a murder case and would be carrying out forensic examinations.
\nInvestigators were considering \u201call versions\u201d when it came to working out who was responsible, it said.
\nThe head of Russia\u2019s Investigative Committee ordered the institution\u2019s central branch to take over the investigation.
\n\u201cAn explosive device was placed on the underside of the car on the driver\u2019s side,\u201d the committee said in a statement. \u201cDarya Dugina, who was behind the wheel, died at the scene.
\n\u201cThe investigation believes that the crime was planned in advance and was of a contractual nature,\u201d it added.
\nMaria Zakharova, Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said that if the investigation\u2019s trail led to Ukraine, then it would point to a policy of \u201cstate terrorism\u201d being pursued by Kyiv.
\nUkraine denied involvement.
\n\u201cI confirm that Ukraine, of course, had nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, like the Russian Federation, and moreover we are not a terrorist state,\u201d said Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, speaking on Ukrainian television.
\nHe appeared to blame internal power struggles between \u201cvarious political factions\u201d in Russia for the killing, and suggested the incident was the \u201cKarmic\u201d payback for supporters of Russia\u2019s actions in Ukraine like Dugina and her father.
\nAlexander Dugin, Darya\u2019s father, has long advocated the unification of Russian-speaking and other territories in a vast new Russian empire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW The daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue who advocates Russia absorbing Ukraine was killed in a suspected car bomb attack outside Moscow, Russian state investigators said on Sunday. Darya Dugina, daughter of prominent ideologue Alexander Dugin, was killed on Saturday evening after a suspected explosive device blew up the Toyota Land Cruiser she was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278716,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-278693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n