Alexander Dugin, a Russian philosopher and a close ally of Vladimir Putin, said his daughter Darya Dugina died for her country, as he delivered an emotional speech at a memorial service in Moscow Tuesday.
“She died for our victory, our Russian victory, for the sake of the orthodoxy of our country, our state,” he said.
Dugina, the editor of a Russian disinformation website, was killed by a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday.
“Since childhood, her first words, which of course we taught her, were Russia: Our state, our people, our empire,” Dugin said at his daughter’s memorial.
“She had no fear, and the last thing she said, when we talked at the Festival of Tradition, she said to me: ‘Dad, I feel like a warrior, I feel like a hero. I want to be like this, I don’t want any other fate. I want to be with my people, with my country,'” Dugin said.
“At my last lecture, we were next to each other and I told her that our history is a constant battle of light and darkness. God and his adversary, and that we are now in this and our political situation and our war in Ukraine, but not with Ukraine. This is also part of this war: Light and darkness,” he added.
Dugin said he “could feel how happy she was” after the Russian Federation awarded Dugina a posthumous order of courage in a decree signed by Putin on Monday.
The Russian President sent his condolences to Dugina’s family on Monday.
“A vile, cruel crime cut short the life of Darya Dugina, a bright, talented person with a real Russian heart – kind, loving, sympathetic and open. A journalist, scientist, philosopher, war correspondent, she honestly served the people, the Fatherland, she proved by deed what it means to be a patriot of Russia,” Putin said in a statement published on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel.
Denis Pushilin, head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, also extended his condolences and praised Dugina’s support for the Donbas region, saying she “fearlessly came to the burning cities of the republic to tell the world the truth about what is happening in our country,” in remarks delivered on his behalf during the service.
Russia has blamed Ukrainian special services for the murder of Dugina, TASS reported on Monday.
Ukraine has denied any involvement in Dugina’s killing, calling Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claims fiction.
