Kiev denies involvement in assassination of Dugin's daughter

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Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said on Sunday that Kiev had nothing to do with the "car accident" in Moscow that killed Russian journalist Daria Dugina, the daughter of Russian political philosopher and analyst Alexander Dugin.

A law enforcement source confirmed to Sputnik on Saturday night that a car caught fire on Mozhayskoye Highway in the Odintsovsky District. The Russian Investigative Committee determined that an explosive device was planted underneath the car's floor on the driver's side.

"Ukraine has nothing to do with it," Podolyak said during a pan-Ukrainian telethon.

Investigators are currently inspecting the accident scene. The burned car, which was later evacuated to specialized parking, was examined with the help of an explosives expert. A video recording from the car's video recorder was seized by investigators. The security services have been tasked with identifying those involved and witnesses.

Russian Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin has directed that the criminal case involving Dugina's murder be transferred to the Main Investigation Department for a more thorough and objective investigation.

Dugina was added to the UK sanctions list in July. In 2014 and 2015, the European Union, the United States, and Canada sanctioned Dugin.

A large explosion tore into an SUV on a highway 20 km away west of Moscow today, instantly killing its driver, who was identified as political commentator Darya Dugina, Russian political analyst and thinker Alexander Dugin's daughter. Dugin, the father, is an influential veteran political commentator, also known as one of the Kremlin's "ideological masterminds" and an occasional contributor to Al Mayadeen English.

The assassination was carried out at 21:35 Moscow time. Witnesses divulged that the explosion happened in the middle of the road, where debris and metal wreckage scattered in the air right before the car crashed into a fence, according to photos and videos.

According to emergency services, there was only one person inside the car, and it was a female body burned beyond recognition.

Anti-Russian hate speech 

Anti-Russian hate speech has gone viral on social media with no restrictions and amid multiple incidents of violence in this context reported.

In one instance, Meta said in a statement in March that it has decided to allow the publication of calls for violence against Russians.

Russia’s Embassy in the United States responded to Meta’s change of policy, which was namely reflected on its Facebook and Instagram platforms, slamming it as “aggressive and criminal” and “outrageous”, because it allows for the “incitement of hatred and hostility towards Russians." Furthermore, the Embassy said the company’s actions present more evidence “of the information war without rules declared on our country.”

Read more: Russia prosecutes Google over not removing banned content

“Media corporations have become soldiers of the propaganda machine of the Western establishment," the Embassy’s statement read.

Facebook removed a post from the Russian Embassy to the UK’s Facebook page, in which it called into question the Western narrative of the attack on Mariupol hospital.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN yesterday said the hospital had been in fact transformed into a base for Ukrainian nationalists targeting Russian troops.

Facebook removed the post under the pretense of it breaking the platform’s rules on "posting content about a violent tragedy, or victims of violent tragedies that include claims that a violent tragedy did not occur.”

Read next: You're doing yourself a "disservice" following only Western media