Hundreds of people have lined up in Moscow to pay tribute to Darya Dugina, the murdered daughter of one of Russia’s most prominent nationalist thinkers, hailing her as a martyr whose death must be avenged with victory in the war in Ukraine.
Dugina, the daughter of ultra-nationalist Alexander Dugin, was killed on Saturday in a car bomb attack outside the capital. Moscow has accused Ukrainian intelligence agencies of masterminding her killing, a claim Kyiv has denied.
Her father, Dugin, 60, who for decades pushed for the creation of a new Russian state that would annex the territory of countries including Ukraine, told mourners his daughter “died for the people, died for Russia”.
“The huge price we have to pay can only be justified by the highest achievement, our victory,” a visibly emotional Dugin said.
“She lived for the sake of victory, and she died for the sake of victory. Our Russian victory, our truth, our Orthodox faith, our state.”
A large black and white portrait of Dugina, 29, who was reportedly close to her father and worked as a nationalist media commentator, hung on a wall behind her coffin.
Dugina’s death on Saturday night was followed by calls from Moscow’s political elite for renewed strikes on Ukraine, and has led to fears in Kyiv of fresh attacks that would coincide with Ukraine’s independence day on Wednesday.
The Russian federal security service (FSB) said on Monday that a female Ukrainian citizen, who arrived in Russia in late July with her 12-year-old daughter, was behind Dugina’s killing. The FSB said that after the killing, the woman and her daughter fled across the border into Estonia. Ukraine has repeatedly denied Kyiv’s involvement in the car bombing and Estonia dismissed the Russian claim as “provocation”.
The funeral ceremony, held in a hall at Moscow’s TV centre on Tuesday, was attended by several powerful pro-Kremlin businessmen and senior Russian politicians. Parliamentary leaders of the three main pro-Kremlin parties spoke at the service, praising Dugina as a patriot and vowing to pursue those who had ordered her murder.
Konstantin Malofeev, a wealthy pro-Kremlin conservative businessman close to the Dugin family, called Dugina a martyr whose death would make Russia “stronger” in its fight against Ukraine.
“The people fighting against us do not understand that the Russian people are not just made up of those who are alive now, but are made up of those who lived before us and will live afterwards. And we will become stronger with the blood of our martyrs.
“And thanks to the untimely end of our dear beloved Dasha [Darya] we will definitely be victorious in this war,” he said.
In one particularly dark speech, Leonid Slutsky, the leader of the nationalist Liberal Democratic party of Russia, called on Russians to unite, saying: “Regardless of our political parties, faith and age, there can be only one approach: one country, one president, one victory.”
Slutsky’s words instantly drew comparisons on Russian social media with the infamous Nazi-era slogan: “One people, one empire, and one leader”
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In attendance was also Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman closely linked to Vladimir Putin who is under western sanctions for his ties to the private Wagner military group.
“Dasha was the foundation stone of Russian greatness and the strength of Russia. And the fact that they tried to knock this stone out only made the foundation stronger,” Prigozhin told journalists outside the funeral.
Russian state television, which broadcast widespread coverage of the funeral, also praised Dugina as a martyr.
“I think Dasha Dugina is our Joan of Arc,” said political commentator Alexei Mukhin on Channel 1.
On Monday, Putin posthumously awarded Dugina the Order of Courage, writing in a letter of condolence that she had a “true Russian heart: kind, loving, sympathetic and open”.