Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed U.S. news reports that the U.S. intelligence community suspects Ukrainian officials were behind the August bombing that killed activist Daria Dugina near Moscow.
The U.S. intelligence community believes the car bombing that killed Dukina, the daughter of prominent Russian nationalist Alexander Dukin, was authorized by Ukrainian government insiders, CNN reported on Wednesday.
The U.S. had no prior knowledge of the plan, and it was unclear who exactly the U.S. believed signed off on the assassination, according to sources who spoke with CNN. It is also unclear whether the U.S. intelligence community believes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky knew or authorized the plot.
The intelligence discovery was first reported by The New York Times.
Peskov added that he hoped the United States would not try to distance itself from any future crimes that Kyiv allegedly planned.
“We really want to believe that it is not the responsibility of the American colleagues to try to get rid of the Kyiv state’s preparations for future terrorist acts after they have some information,” Peskov said on the Kremlin’s daily conference call with reporters.
“If it’s not fake, then it’s really positive that U.S. intelligence agrees with that,” Peskov said.
More background: Ukrainian government officials did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. They have previously denied Ukraine was involved in the murder.
“From the very beginning, the Kremlin supported the same message from the Russian special forces. The Ukrainian government was involved in this terrorist act, the murder of a young girl, our special services have argued and proved it,” Peskov Say.
“Soon, the person in charge was identified, and it was clear who the client was,” he said.
Russia’s security service, the FSB, released the name of the alleged attacker within two days of the assassination, saying she was working on behalf of Ukrainian special forces. By then, she had left Russia by car via Estonia, according to the FSB. She hasn’t been seen since then.