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Russian media figures have called for strikes on command centers in Ukraine after blasts in Crimea and Moscow.
Darya Dugina, the 29-year-old daughter of a Russian ideologue known as "Putin's brain," was killed when her car exploded on the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday evening, officials said.
The blast was caused by a bomb planted in the Toyota Land Cruiser, according to a statement from the Investigative Committee branch for the Moscow region. It said investigators had opened a murder case and would be conducting forensic examinations.
No suspects were immediately identified in Dugina's killing, but Russia's TASS state news agency quoted an associate saying the vehicle belonged to her father, Alexander Dugin, and he was probably the bomb's intended target.
Dugin's writings are said to have heavily influenced Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy, including the invasion of Ukraine.
Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief at RT, formerly known as Russia Today, condemned Dugina's killing in posts on Twitter and Telegram and called for strikes targeting "decision-making centers" (though she did not specify if she meant in Kyiv or elsewhere).
Her post was shared by others, including Vladimir Solovyov, a prominent host on Russian state television.
In another post, she called for those "making fun" of Dugina's death to be arrested. "Time to take out the trash," she wrote.
The Russian Foreign Ministry speculated that Ukraine could be behind the attack.
Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, wrote on Telegram that if Ukraine was responsible, "then we should talk about the policy of state terrorism implemented by the Kyiv regime."
She added: "We are waiting for the results of the investigation."
Ukrainian officials have denied any involvement.
"Ukraine certainly had nothing to do with yesterday's explosion," Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky, said in a television interview on Sunday.
Dugina's death comes after a series of blasts have rocked Russian military facilities in Crimea—which Russia annexed in 2014—this month. One of the explosions, at the Saki air base, reportedly destroyed several aircraft, while another reportedly hit the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.
Ukraine was behind those explosions, CNN reported, citing a Ukrainian government report that was circulated internally and shared with the network by a Ukrainian official.
Denis Pushilin, the president of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic, blamed Saturday's blast on "terrorists of the Ukrainian regime, trying to eliminate Alexander Dugin."
"Vile villains," he added in a post on the Telegram platform.
About the writer
Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's National Correspondent based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on education and national news. Khaleda ... Read more