Who is Alexander Dugin? Whose daughter got killed by car bomb in Russia

The daughter of ultra-nationalist Putin ally Alexander Dugin was killed by a car bomb near Moscow overnight.

Daria Dugina died after a suspected explosive device on the car she was driving detonated, investigators form the Moscow region said in a statement.

TV footage showed investigators collecting debris from the roadside where the explosion happened. They have opened a murder case and are considering "all versions" of events.

What happened?

Dugina's car exploded on Saturday evening as she drove home from a cultural festival that she had attended with her father.

"This was the father's vehicle. Darya [normally drove] another car but she took his car today, while Alexander went in a different way," Andrey Krasnov, Dugin's friend and the head of the Russian Horizon social movement, told Russia's state-owned TASS news agency.

"He returned, he was at the site of the tragedy. As far as I understand, Alexander or probably they together were the target."

Who is Alexander Dugin?

Alexander Dugin is an ultra-nationalist ideologue who is seen as a key architect behind the current worldview of top Kremlin lawmakers.

He is also seen as having influence over President Vladimir Putin himself — even being called "Putin's brain" by Western media — but some Russia watchers have downplayed Dugin's influence in recent months.

The prolific political author has long advocated for a new Russian empire, and was an ardent supporter of the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russian authorities described his 29-year-old daughter as a political expert in her own right. She recently appeared on state TV to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.

"Dasha, like her father, has always been at the forefront of confrontation with the West," nationalist TV station Tsargrad said on Sunday.