Evidently, this alleged assasin is a member of the fascist Azov Regiment. More on that below.

But first, here’s ZeroHedge: ZeroHedge: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russian-fsb-identifies-alleged-dugina-assassin

Russian FSB Identifies Alleged Dugina Assassin

At the turn of the 20th century the delicate fabric of social order in Europe rested on a knife’s edge. As imperial powers expanded their empires, it was only a matter of time before conflict between them would shatter peace in Europe. In that era, Russia found itself against Europe’s most powerful empires, namely Austria-Hungary and Germany.

The fissure between those empires was cemented by the Bosnian Crisis of 1908 which saw Austria-Hungary annex Bosnia and Herzegovina by using Bulgaria’s declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire as an advantageous political catalyst given its destabilization of the Balkan region. Austria-Hungary’s actions would provoke Russia to rise to the defense of its Slavic brethren situated in Serbia and Montenegro in a response that would forever alter how Russia would align itself among the continental powers of Europe. While a widespread conflict was averted by the amending the Treaty of Berlin, the political climate the Bosnian Crisis cast would light the fuse for the inevitable outbreak of WWI which was detonated with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Bosnian-Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip.

As the war in Ukraine places Russia at familiar odds with the powers of Europe yet again, the precarious position of ostensibly unsustainable peace across the continent echoes on longer than a century following the First World War. The tension illustrates the axiom that nothing is new under the sun as the volatility of Europe in 2022 mirrors that in 1908. Russia’s position against the European hegemony vested in NATO is analogous to its stance in support of the Slavic realm longer than a century ago. Now, following the assassination of Darya Dugina, this century may have found its own Franz Ferdinand.

The Russian Federal Security Service (“FSB”) has claimed that the assassination of Dugina was committed by a covert operative of Ukraine. The FSB has identified Natalia Vovk as the alleged assassin. “As a result of a complex of urgent operational-search measures, the Federal Security Service has solved the murder of Russian journalist Darya Dugina, born in 1992,” the FSB announced, going on to emphasize the culpibility of the Ukrainian government by stating that “the crime was prepared and committed by the Ukrainian special services[.]”

According to the FSB’s investigation, Vovk entered Russia in July before situating herself in the same apartment building that Dugina resided in. Vovk would then follow Dugina to the festival in which the explosive device that led to her death was planted. Vovk, who was accompanied by her 12-year old daughter, fled to Estonia following the assassination, according to Russian intelligence. Following her identification, Russian law enforcement agencies declared their intent to seek her extradition.

Following Dugina’s assassination, Ukraine was naturally implicated as being behind the murder given her father’s significant, albeit enigmatic, reputation as one of Vladimir Putin’s most influential ideologues. Kiev urgently washed its hands of any involvement as advisor Mykhailo Podolyak stated “Ukraine, of course, has nothing to do with yesterday’s explosion[.]” Although Ukrainian officials denied any involvement in the attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of his anticipation that Dugina’s murder would inextricably result in the intensification Russia’s military campaign.

Given the reports of Vovk’s escape to Estonia, the location of the alleged assassin places Russia in a conflict against a NATO member state even more directly than the proxy war in Ukraine has. In 2016, the European Court of Justice set precedent which would justify any extradition request for Vovk by Russia. The case law that set that standard occurred when the court found that any member state of the European Union is obligated to accommodate an extradition request of any third-party non-member state even if the subject of the request is not a citizen of the EU nation itself. This decision followed a case in which Russia requested to have Estonian national Aleksei Petruhhin extradited from Latvia for drug trafficking offenses.

The legal framework set by the European Court of Justice will place Estonia in a crucible if Vovk has indeed found safe haven in the Baltic state. In addition to joining the EU in 2004, Estonia joined NATO that same year. The potential conflict arising between Estonia and the Russian Federation has the potential to trigger Article 5 of the NATO Charter which puts forth a collective defense clause meaning that any military engagement with a NATO member state constitutes action taken against the entire trans-Atlantic body whether it occurs as far east as Tallinn or as far west as Hawai’i.

Article 5 has been constantly dangled before Russia as a Sword of Damicles of sorts designed to dissuade any escalation of the Ukrainian conflict. The veiled threat was most recently invoked in response to Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and increased military incursions by Ukrainian military forces into Crimea. “Any deliberate damage causing potential radiation leak to a Ukrainian nuclear reactor would be a breach of NATO’s Article 5,” said UK MP Tobias Ellwood. His sentiments were echoed by US Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R – IL) who followed Ellwood’s declaration by stating “This really isn’t even up for debate; any leak will kill people in NATO countries, that’s an automatic article 5[.]” just hours before Dugina’s assassination.

While Article 5 of the NATO Charter has been used to threaten Russia from intensifying any aggression, the officials who have constantly cited the collective defense policy have done so under the pretense of preventing any further aggression. The assassination of Darya Dugina is a drastically different circumstance as Russia will surely perceive any potential action it takes to have Vovk extradited from Estonia as entirely justified and as a response to the murder, not an offensive attack against a NATO member state. As the manhunt for Vovk ensures, Europe again finds itself in the political crucible that enveloped the continent following Gravrilo Princip’s assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. However, in this historical iteration, it is the European central powers who find themselves in a position of being the aggressor that could provoke a catastrophic conflict with Russia.

Here’s Sputnik: https://sputniknews.com/20220822/russias-fsb-ukrainian-special-services-behind-murder-of-daria-dugina-1099854294.html

The 29-year-old journalist and daughter of famed Russian political philosopher Alexander Dugin was killed instantly Saturday night on a highway outside Moscow after a powerful car bomb attached to the SUV she was driving detonated.

Ukraine’s special services are behind the murder of Daria Dugina, and the perpetrator of the crime is Natalya Vovk, a Ukrainian national, the Federal Security Service (Russian acronym FSB) has concluded.

“It has been established that the crime was prepared and committed by the Ukrainian special services. The perpetrator is Natalya Pavlovna Vovk, a citizen of Ukraine born in 1979, who arrived in Russia on July 23, 2022 together with her daughter…,” the domestic security agency said in a statement Monday.

Vovk was said to have rented an apartment in the same building where Dugina lived to obtain information about her lifestyle. The perpetrator was said to have driven a Mini Cooper, with the vehicle entering Russia with Donetsk People’s Republic plates, using Republic of Kazakhstan plates while in Moscow, and Ukrainian plates when leaving the country through Pskov region into Estonia.

“On the day of the murder, Vovk and [her 12-year-old daughter] attended the ‘Tradition’ literary and music festival, where Dugina was present as an honored guest,” the FSB said. “After carrying out the controlled explosion of the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado which Dugina was driving, Vovk and her daughter left [Russia] through Pskov region into Estonia,” the agency indicated.

The security service said it has transferred its information to the Investigative Committee.

The FSB later released footage of Vovk during her time in Russia, including footage from border guard body cameras of the suspected assassin crossing into and out of Russia, and footage from door cams entering the residence where Dugina resided.

Dugina, 29, died instantly in an car bombing west of Moscow on Saturday night. According to investigators, the vehicle belonged to her father, 60-year-old Russian philosopher, journalist, and radical geostrategist Alexander Dugin. Dugina was Dugin’s only daughter.

Donetsk People’s Republic head Denis Pushilin accused Kiev of involvement in the assassination almost immediately after the bombing took place. On Sunday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that if suspicions of Ukrainian involvement in the attack were corroborated, it would point to Kiev’s policy of “state terrorism.” Kiev has denied any involvement.

Western media have nearly unanimously reported on Dugina’s murder in the context of her father’s supposed connections to Vladimir Putin, calling the philosopher the Russian president’s “closest aide,” “ally” or even his “brain.” In reality, although Dugin is a leading Russian conservative intellectual and proponent of Eurasianism – a highly eclectic ideology consisting of nationalism, mysticism, Orthodoxy, socialism and anti-modernist views, his connections to or influence on Putin are dubious at best, and there is no evidence that the two have ever even met.

Also on Monday, Russian tycoon Konstantin Malofeev posted a message which he said was from Dugin on Telegram. “[My daughter] was a beautiful Orthodox girl, a patriot, a military correspondent, an expert on the central television channels, a philosopher. Her speeches and reports were always profound, grounded and restrained. She never called for violence or war,” the message said.

“She was a rising star at the beginning of her journey. The enemies of Russia killed her in a scummy, underhanded way. But we, our people cannot be broken even by such unbearable blows. They wanted to crush our will with bloody terror against the best and most vulnerable among us. But they won’t succeed,” the message added.

Dugin wrote that “revenge or retribution” would be “too petty, not in the Russian way,” and that “we need only our victory. My daughter has laid her life on its alter. So win, please!”

The Kremlin’s Telegram channel expressed the Russian president’s condolences to Dugina’s family, calling her killing a “vile and cruel crime,” and characterizing her as a true patriot.

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Next up – RT’s take on the assassin including a doxing report connecting her to Azov: https://www.rt.com/russia/561318-dugina-suspect-vovk-video/

Footage shows the Ukrainian citizen entering the country and leaving it after allegedly assassinating Darya Dugina

FSB video shows the suspect behind Moscow car bombing, Natalya Vovk, entering the house where the attack’s victim, Darya Dugina, lived © RT

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has made public a video of Ukrainian national Natalya Vovk, identified as the prime suspect in Saturday’s car bombing that killed journalist Darya Dugina in Moscow. The footage published Monday shows Vovk and her teenage daughter entering Russia, inside the building where Dugina lived, and leaving the country in haste. 

Vovk, 43, was named by the FSB on Monday as the prime suspect in the assassination of Dugina. The Ukrainian national arrived in Russia on July 23, using Donetsk People’s Republic license plates to avoid scrutiny. While in Moscow, she swapped the plates on her Mini Cooper to those of Kazakhstan, a friendly former Soviet republic. On Sunday, after the bombing, Vovk drove to Estonia with Ukrainian plates, the FSB said.

Photos of the different license plates were included as part of the video presentation.

The authorities also said Vovk may have used her teenage daughter as cover to move around Russia more easily. She rented an apartment in the same building where Dugina lived, and was captured on the doorway camera.

A photo ID of Vovk in the uniform of Ukraine’s National Guard was published in April on the Russian internet, as part of a dox of neo-Nazi Azov regiment members. It lists her surname as Shaban – the surname her daughter used when entering Russia, according to the FSB. Ukraine previously claimed it was not involved in the assassination.

READ MORE: Russia blames Ukraine for deadly Moscow blast

Dugina, 29, was killed on Saturday evening after attending a conservative family festival near Moscow with her father, philosopher Aleksandr Dugin. Vovk allegedly planted an improvised explosive device under the Toyota SUV that belonged to Dugin, who may have been her intended target.