The image of Alexander Dugin, a 60-year-old bearded man, standing holding his head in astonishment in front of the burning vehicle in which his daughter, Daria Dugin, was killed in the dead of night on a road from a beer mixer in Moscow, reflects a heartbreaking scene on a human level.
But behind the father grieving for his daughter is a much more complex and dark story, the details of which are unlikely to become clear soon.
According to widespread estimates in Russia, the explosive device that ended Daria Dogina's life was intended in general for her father, one of the most prominent, extreme intellectuals and closest to the regime in Russia.
Dugin was nicknamed "Putin's brain" although his personal closeness to Putin, and the extent of his influence, is very much in the dark.
The man, who also served as a strategic advisor and political activist, casts a heavy shadow over Russian politics.
Alexander Dugin at the scene of his daughter's assassination
Dugin's political path began even before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In the 1980s Doug was known as an opponent of the communist regime and was active in underground right-wing circles in Moscow.
Dugin also hung out in mystical circles and even participated in meetings of Satan worshiping groups.
He worked as a journalist and first came out with his views publicly after the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1988.
On the one hand, Dugin helped write the platform of the resurgent Communist Party, but was also active in the fascist "Memory" organization, which became one of the founding organizations of the extreme right in Russia.
He founded a magazine called "Elementy" where he extolled the glorious imperial past of the Soviet Union and Tsarist Russia and called for the establishment of a "Eurasian Empire", a motif that would become increasingly central to Dugin's teaching.
The scene of the assassination of Daria Dogina,
In a series of books and essays produced by his pen, Dugin sketched more and more clearly over the years the dream of a Russian empire that would stretch from Western Europe to the Far East and hold the "exit to the Indian Sea" in the south.
The character with which Dugin clothed his empire is a mirror image of what he perceives as the degeneration of the West.
The archetypes of the traditional family, orthodox Christianity and village life and agriculture that will replace the urbanism and cosmopolitanism of the West.
In a seminal interview with one of the media outlets in Russia, Dugin explained his doctrine: "We stand on the side of Stalin and the Soviet Union. We are conservative, we want a strong and centralized state, we want order and normal family values, positive values and a place of honor for the church in society."
Dugin also clarified his position regarding the freedom of the media and the right to speak, saying: "We want patriotic media, national radio and television, patriotic experts who express the national interest."
"Putin's Mind", Alexander Dugin, photo: AP
Dugin's confusing concoction of communism, conservatism and fascism also contains a significant amount of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Dugin openly said that he relied on anti-Semitic thinkers.
Dugin also praised the research division of the SS and called it "an oasis of intellectual activity and creativity. Dugin attended an anti-Israel conference in Iran alongside Palestinian leaders and other well-known anti-Semites.
It is difficult to know who is behind the assassination of the thinker's daughter. Because of this, it is also unclear whether Indeed, the charge was aimed at Dugin himself, as the daughter was a political activist in her own right. It is possible that the assassination was an operation by the Ukrainian secret service, but it is equally likely that his extreme positions and closeness to Dugin's regime brought him or his daughter the wrath of other shadow figures at the top of the Russian government , which is not without internal struggles and intrigues, which can end in fatal results.
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