Brief Dugin Update

The Estonia Angle Is Important

There are a few reports this morning that may shed light on the method by which Aleksandr Dugin’s daughter, Daria Dugina, was assassinated in a sabotaged car belonging to her father. As we stated yesterday, while Dugina was a vociferous supporter of her father’s views, most official sources assume that the true target was Dugin himself—who, apparently, was traveling in a car behind the one Dugina was traveling. The best sources say that the bomb was attached to the bottom of Dugin’s vehicle. Whether the bomb was detonated remotely, without identification of the actual occupant, or whether a decision was made to use the bomb on a secondary but identified target, is unclear.

At any rate, Moon of Alabama published this account via Russians With Attitude:

Please note this assertion: “Vovk and her daughter … left for Estonia via Pskov.”

The points above appear to be a translation of material that is presented via auto-translation at The Saker. Again, note the reference to Estonia and the conviction that Ukraine’s SBU was behind the assassinatin:

The FSB confirms: Dariia Dugina was murdered by the SBU

(Machine translation)

The FSB reported on the identification of the customers and perpetrators of the murder of Daria Dugina.

The murder was planned by the Ukrainian special services.
The direct perpetrator of the murder was a citizen of Ukraine Natalia Vovk, born in 1979, who left Russia for Estonia on August 21. She arrived in Russia on July 23.

It is also reported that:

1. Vovk and her daughter Sofya Shaban rented an apartment in the house where Daria Dugina lived in Moscow.
2. A “Mini Cooper” was used to spy on Daria Dugina. The numbers were changed three times on it — the license plates of the DPR, Kazakhstan and Ukraine were used

As reported, Daria’s car was blown up using a remote detonation of an IED with a capacity of 400 grams of TNT.

The car was driven from the parking lot to the explosion site. The suspects’ phones have disappeared from the network.The investigation continues.

…

According to Russian sources, Natalia Vovk is now hiding in Estonia, and EU and NATO member state.

The significance of the references to Estonia is as follows.

The escape of the perpetrators through Pskov to Estonia was clearly planned. The distance from Moscow to Pskov is 378 miles. That translates to a driving time of about 6-1/2 hours at a speed of 70 mph. From Pskov to Narva—the easternmost major border city of Estonia with Russia, is an additional 150 miles by land. I specify by land, because I assume air travel between Russia and Estonia is restricted or ended by the sanctions. I will make the assumption that the perpetrators sought to place as much distance between themselves and the crime scene in as short a time as possible, and therefore would have pre-arranged air travel to Pskov, saving hours of travel time, but then would have had to continue by land.

The Russian FSB appears quite confident that the perpetrators crossed into Estonia, but that almost certainly means that the Estonian border authorities were alerted to allow these travelers into Estonia—or that the perpetrators had travel documents that would allow entry to Estonia under tense circumstances. This strongly suggests the cooperation of professional intelligence services in their escape plan.

I doubt that Estonia took the assassination upon itself, but agreed to cooperate with the escape—or …

Estonia may have given MI6 more or less free reign or direction over its own security services. That or close cooperation has been established. The UK has a significant presence in Estonia, and has had for months—the UK military presence in Estonia, small as it may seem, dwarfs Estonia’s own “military”. For example. And where the UK military goes, they are sure to be accompanied by UK intelligence, both military and civilian. I therefore suspect that there is a subtext to the FSB statements, above, which point out this Estonian angle. While the FSB directly states the responsibility of Ukraine’s SBU, they surely understand that the SBU doesn’t have unrestricted ability to operate covertly in Estonia. The references to Estonia, for intelligence professionals, are probably hints at MI6 involvement. It’s probably not a question of proof at this point, but it is a logical inference that will not have been lost on the FSB.

Exactly what this will lead to is difficult to say. However, Estonia and the UK has taken a major step that will have consequences at some point.