A member of Vladimir Putin's closest circle has reportedly narrowly avoided being killed in a car bombing which saw his daughter “blown to bits”.
Alexander Dugin, a fascist political strategist who has been dubbed 'Putin's Philosopher' and a modern-day version of Rasputin, was allegedly the intended target of the attack on the outskirts of Moscow.
Instead his daughter Darya Dugin, a sanctioned Russian national, is thought to have died in the explosion on a main road near the village of Bolshiye Vyazyomy on Saturday.
Her father is said to be one of the key architects of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and one of his closest advisers.
Video from the scene shows a Land Cruiser Prado engulfed in flames with a fire truck in attendance .
The motives and intended target of the attack have not been confirmed.
However, the Daily Mail reported one of Putin's stooges accusing Ukrainian “terrorists” of being behind the incident.
Denis Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk People's Republic – a pro-Kremlin separatist region in eastern Ukraine, said on Telegram: "The terrorists of the Ukrainian regime, trying to eliminate Alexander Dugin, blew up his daughter... In a car. Blessed memory of Daria, she is a real Russian girl."
Dugin, who once wrote that a totalitarian Russian state should control Europe as far west as Dublin in order to challenge America, does not have a formal government role.
He has said that Russia not regaining control of Ukraine would be “an enormous danger for all of Eurasia” and was sanctioned by the United States in 2015 after being accused of trying to recruit pro-Russia forces in the country.
In another suspected Ukrainian attack, a drone strike hit Russia's naval headquarters in Crimea, causing a large explosion.
Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev confirmed the attack on Telegram, writing: “Unfortunately, [the drone] was not shot down, although they worked on the bay with small arms. [It] went low. There were no victims.”
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