How important is Alexander Dugin?: This attack "must shock the Kremlin"

“Kill, kill, kill,” Alexander Dugin demanded during the attack on Ukraine in 2014. But his influence on Putin was, and still is, limited. Another factor, however, makes the murder of his daughter dangerous for the Kremlin.

The gestures of the man, who looks at the blazing car on the edge of the road in an unconfirmed video, speak of incredulous horror. It is said to be Alexander Dugin, father of Russian journalist Darja Dugina, who died in a bomb attack on Saturday. According to many public voices, it was he who actually put the explosive device under the car.

For decades, the ultra-nationalist Dugin has been philosophizing about the radical difference in Russian civilization, whose values, in his view, must be geopolitically disseminated as far as possible – and gladly by means of war. “He was an enthusiastic supporter of the 2009 war in Chechnya and also the annexation of Crimea in 2014,” says Ulrich Schmid, professor of Russian culture and society at the University of St. Gallen. “Back in May, when a trade union building in Odessa was on fire, Dugin said in a famous video appearance: ‘What we have to do now is kill, kill, kill’.”

Accordingly, Dugin is enthusiastic about the Russian attack on Ukraine and even calls for a new level of escalation. One should no longer speak of a military special operation, but the war must be conducted openly as such. “His argument is that Ukraine is in the stranglehold of pernicious western liberalism and needs to be liberated,” explains Schmid.

The Russian domestic secret service FSB blamed Ukraine for the attack on Dugin’s daughter on Monday afternoon. The “assassination” of Darya Dugina was “prepared and carried out by Ukrainian special forces,” Russian news agencies quote the FSB as saying. The woman who placed the explosive device in the car then fled to the EU country of Estonia.

The head of the Russian puppet government in the “Donetsk People’s Republic”, Denis Puschilin, was even quicker: he blamed Ukraine for the attack on Dugin’s daughter on Sunday. “Terrorists of the Ukrainian regime tried to liquidate Alexander Dugin, but blew up his daughter,” Pushilin explained on Telegram.

However, if Dugin is portrayed in the reports as a whisperer, adviser or even the “brain” behind Vladimir Putin, then, according to Russia expert Schmid, that is far too much of an exaggeration. “He is not a cue for any of the parties in the Duma, the Russian parliament, and the Kremlin and Putin are carefully keeping their distance from Dugin.”

Measured by the ultra-right philosopher’s fantasies of destruction, Putin has never been radical enough in his eyes. For years, Dugin has accused an influential Kremlin advisor like Vladislav Surkov of only using ideological content to stabilize his own power – ideology as a means to an end.

The 60-year-old ultra-nationalist has been demanding what Russia is now trying to do in Ukraine for decades: “In particular, the entire Ukrainian Black Sea region must come under Russian control, be it through affiliation, annexation to the Russian Federation or the creation of a new pseudo State of New Russia ‘Novorossija'”, Eastern Europe analyst Andreas Umland describes Dugin’s visions on the Swiss broadcaster SRF.

But even if Dugin’s actual influence in the Kremlin is limited, the murder of his daughter has hit the Russian government hard. After all, it is security and stability that Putin has guaranteed to the Russian people. “The fact that such an assassination attempt, apparently carried out very professionally, is possible just a few kilometers from Moscow, in the center of power, must shock the Kremlin,” said Russia expert Schmid.

The attack also signals to the public that the Russian authorities are not in a position to adequately protect people who present a very conservative agenda. “The attack shows the vulnerability of ideologues in Russia’s power center,” says Schmid. “It’s a defeat for the country.”

But not only the Russian regime was affected by the attack on Darja Dugina. With this attack, the Russian population loses the illusion that the war in Ukraine is far away from them and therefore hardly affects them. “Those who carried out this attack show very clearly: Russia cannot simply wage an undeclared war in Ukraine and believe that it will not also be carried out on Russian territory,” said Ulrich Schmid. The Russians themselves are now confronted with the destructiveness that Russian troops are living out in Ukraine.