5:59 v originále: The Dugins and The Rise of Russia's New Nationalism

Ukraine denies Russia's accusation that its special operatives were behind the killing of Darya Dugina. A daughter of a prominent Russian ultranationalist philosopher Alexander Dugin died in a car bomb attack near Moscow last weekend. What is known about the attack? What will be its likely consequences? And what influence, if any, have Dugin's ideas had on the Kremlin?

While Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced they identified the alleged perpetrator behind the assassination - a certain Ukrainian woman who has left Russia since, Charles Clover, Financial Times/Nikkei Asia's editor who used to be based in Moscow and authored a book on the rise of Russia's new nationalism, remains skeptical of the claim.

„Why would Ukraine risk resources and assets to assassinate somebody in Moscow?“ he asks, adding that we may never know who bombed the car but we can already see how it is being used. „Nationalist wing in Russian politics is calling for revenge and whipping up public sentiment so it does appear that this is going to further radicalize the already radical elements among the Russian nationalists.“

There is speculation about how much influence Darya Dugina's father, Alexander Dugin, who - as some allege - might have been the actual target of the assassination, has over Kremlin. Some people refer to him as „Putin's brain“, a view Clover doesn't share, not least because of their minimal direct contact. There has only been one known meeting between the two, back in the year 2000.

„I don't think that there's much direct connection between Dugin and Putin and Putin's thinking, but Dugin is certainly influential in his being one of the first people to write about a new imperial identity for Russia, as early as 1990s,“ says Clover, giving Dugin credit for playing a major role in shaping the thinking of Russia's security apparatus. Many people from Putin's inner circle are known to embrace Dugin's ideas and tu support the man himself.

What forms the basis of Dugin's ideology? Why did Putin's attempt to use nationalism as an instrument of control backfire? And how credible is the information that a hitherto unknown group calling itself National Republican Army and composed of Russian partisans is responsible for the killing of Darya Dugina? Listen to the whole interview via the audioplayer which you can find at the top of the article.