Russia has claimed that its secret service agency, FSB, has solved the mystery behind Darya Darya's assassination. According to Russian news agencies, a Ukrainian woman fled to Estonia after detonating the car bomb that killed Darya near Moscow on Saturday. The assassin has been identified as Natalia Vovk who was assigned by Ukraine's secret services.
Darya, a hardline TV broadcast journalist and daughter of Putin's brain Alexander Dugin was killed in a car bomb attack in Moscow on Saturday. However, Dugin is believed to be have been the intended target, who luckily escaped the attack. Although Ukraine has claimed that it was not involved in Darya's murder, the FSB has put the blame on Ukraine.
Russia Identifies Darya Assassin
According to Tass, Natalia planted the bomb in the car Darya was driving. The car was owned by Dugin but was being driven by his daughter. Dugin too was supposed to be traveling in that car but hopped into another one at the last moment, which saved him from getting killed.
Tass reported that according to Russia's state security service FSB, the murder of journalist Darya Dugina has been solved. "It was prepared by Ukrainian secret services. The perpetrator - a citizen of Ukraine identified as Natalia Vovk - escaped to Estonia, the FSB's public relations center stated," the report stated.
"As a result of urgent detective measures, the federal security service has solved the murder of Russian journalist Darya Dugina, born in 1992," Tass reported quoting an FSB statement.
The assassin, Natalia Vovk was identified as a citizen of Ukraine, who was born in 1979, the report further added. On July 23, 2022, Vovk and her daughter Sofya Shaban, who was born in 2010, arrived in Russia, the agency reported.
The FSB claimed in its report that Vovk and Shaban went to the literary and musical festival Tradition on the day of the murder. Darya was there at the event as an honorary guest. Her father too was attending the event.
"On August 21, after a remote-controlled explosion of the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado car Darya was driving, Vovk and her daughter left through the Pskov Region to Estonia," the FSB said.
This means Vovk fled Moscow at least a day after Darya was killed. Vovk and her daughter rented an apartment in the same Moscow complex where Darya stayed so that she could plan the murder and learn more about the victim's lifestyle.
Vovk used a Mini Cooper to follow the journalist. "The materials of the investigation have been handed over to the Investigative Committee," the FSB said.
Ukraine Denies Claims
Authorities in Ukraine have vehemently denied any involvement in the blast on Saturday. Workers in the Ukrainian government were instructed to work from home this week after irate Russians called for attacks on Ukrainian government buildings.
The Kyiv military administration has also declared all public gatherings in the city to be banned till Thursday due to the "high probability" of rocket attacks.
Interestingly, Saturday was also Estonia's Restoration of Independence Day, marking 31 years since the end of Russia's occupation of the nation of 1.3 million people.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Darya, a Russian journalist, has provided pro-Russian media with reports from Ukraine, especially from the Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol. The British government imposed sanctions on her last month for being "a frequent and prominent provider of misinformation in respect to Ukraine."
According to reports, Darya was instantly killed when her Toyota Land Cruiser Prado exploded in a firestorm burst in Bolshie Vyazemy, a town outside of Moscow. However, her father - Putin's "spiritual guide" - was intended to be in the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado which was hit.
Dugin, according to a report in The Sun, is said to be in a hospital where he suffered a heart attack according to reports from Moscow. Russia's Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova posted via Telegram that "if any Ukrainian link was found, it would amount to state terrorism." Officials from Ukraine have stated they are not to blame for the bombing.
No group has claimed responsibility for Saturday evening's bombing on a highway in southwest Moscow.
