Russian government officials, investigators and state media propagandists are airing out their grand revenge plot over the killing of Darya Dugina, daughter of the notorious Alexander Dugin, to a wide array of the Kremlin’s foes. Dugina’s father is known as a key architect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and was initially believed to have been the target of Saturday’s attack, but the Federal Security Service (the FSB) claimed in an official statement on Monday that Dugina herself was specifically targeted. The FSB accused a Ukrainian citizen of renting an apartment in the building where Dugina lived, following her with intent to kill, detonating the bomb in Dugina’s car and fleeing from Russia to Estonia. State media propagandists immediately started to discuss the retaliation against Russia’s nemesis, Estonia, for its anticipated refusal to cooperate with Russia’s investigation. State Duma member Adalbi Shkhagoshev told the state media outlet RIA Novosti that the Estonian special services likely participated in what he described as “a terrorist plot” against Dugina. Estonia recently banned Russians with Estonian-issued Schengen visas from entering the country, and called on the EU to ban Russian tourists while the Kremlin is committing genocide in Ukraine. This placed Estonia firmly in Russia’s crosshairs, with multiple Kremlin propagandists strategizing on-air how to retaliate against the country. Dugina’s killing is now being used to drum up an excuse for drastic retaliatory measures, such as the severing of any diplomatic ties and cutting off all energy supplies and any other trade between Russia and Estonia. In a typical fashion, Russia’s propaganda networks came up with a myriad of theories, attempting to tie multiple enemies to the alleged multinational plot to target Dugina. On Sunday, political analyst Sergei Markov told the Komsomolskaya Pravda that British security services planned Dugina’s assassination, in order to provoke the Kremlin to bomb downtown Kyiv on August 24—Ukraine’s Independence Day. He also claimed that the British intelligence services organized the killing in order to undermine the relations between Russia and Turkey, describing Dugin as an important conduit.
via daily beast: Punishment Time: Car Bomb Sends Russia Into Peak Menace Mode