Russian Daria Dougin died in the explosion of her vehicle on Saturday night near Moscow, reports the Russian agency TASS. Her father, Alexander Dougin, a very influential Russian ideologue, opted not to get into this car at the last moment. Everything indicates that he was the target of an assassination attempt.

Alexander Dougin is sometimes dubbed Putin’s “brain” or “Rasputin” in the Western press, as in this article from the Spot 2014. He is the author of several books that combine geopolitics, ultranationalism and mysticism, which have influenced the ideology of Russian power.

Theorist of Eurasianism and the Russian world.

Born in 1962, Alexandre Douguine studied engineering in Moscow. He initially frequented esoteric circles, opposed to both communist power and Western influence. He clandestinely publishes the first book of his, The mysteries of Eurasia, in 1988.

A few years later, in 1997, he published The foundations of geopolitics.. It is in this book that he exposes his thinking: he advocates a subversion strategy to oppose Russia’s rival countries in different spheres of influence, in order to divide, weaken and influence them.

“He is a bit of an heir to the Slavophiles, with this idea of ​​Eurasianism. But at the same time, [sa pensée] It is a bit of a mixture of esoteric thinking, with telluric forces against thalassocratic forces… It is very difficult to define, and at the same time a great admirer of Nazism”, explains Sylvie Bermann, former French ambassador to Russia and diplomatic consultant for BFMTV. .

In the years that followed, the book enjoyed strong exposure among the Russian military and diplomatic elite. Among his other works, The Fourth Political Theory, published in 2012, also expands on this thought.

An influence to qualify?

In 1998, Alexandre Douguine became an adviser to the presidency of the Duma, the Russian assembly, on geopolitical issues. It is difficult not to see similarities in the politics of Vladimir Putin with certain reflections of the philosopher: either in the total opposition to NATO, or to the rapprochement with Central Asia and the creation of a Eurasian Economic Union in 2014.

Alexander Dougin also took a position on the Ukrainian conflict. In 2014, just months after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, he supported the full annexation of the country, he told the BBC at the time. Position that he held in 2008, and that he continues to support in 2022.

However, the essayist is not necessarily the gray eminence that is sometimes presented. “I’m not sure that in recent years he has had so much influence,” tempers Sylvie Bermann, while she points out that Vladimir Putin recommended reading his works.

Daria Dougine, such a committed girl

Alexander Dougin’s daughter, Daria, was also a political figure in her own right. Born in 1992, she worked as a journalist for the magazine united world international. The Guardian She recalls that she, like her father, had been subject to British and US government sanctions since the beginning of the year and the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

She defended her father’s theses, and her political participation could mean that she too was the target of a possible attack. “The liberals hated her as much as her father,” says Sylvie Bermann.

On BFMTV, Denis Strelkov, a journalist with the Russian newsroom of RFI, assures that the two figures potentially had several opponents.

“We can say that Alexander Dougin had many enemies, long before the war. He was not only criticizing Ukraine, but also the United States, for example, ”he reports.

Unpredictable consequences on the war and Russian power

The Russian investigation committee says Daria Dugin’s death “was planned and ordered”. At the moment, it is impossible to know if this is an act of Russian resistance or an attack organized by Ukrainian agents. Kyiv has denied being behind the attack. However, this act could have repercussions in the Ukraine war.

“It is the intellectual dimension of the Putinian project that is affected. It is not Douguine’s daughter who is pointed out as such, but unquestionably, what the thinker embodies”, explains David Rigoulet-Roze, associate researcher at IRIS.

If murders and suspicious disappearances have marked Russia’s recent history, however, it is unprecedented for relatives of the Russian autocrat to be targeted in this way. “This is a worrying event that Vladimir Poutine might want to take advantage of,” judge Patrick Martin-Genier, a professor at Sciences Po Paris and at Inalco, for his part.