Natalya Vovk
 Natalya Vovk  (spook) | |
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| Born | 1979 |
Natalia Pavlovna Vovk (née Shaban) is a Ukrainian national who has been designated as the main suspect of murdering the Russian journalist Darya Dugina on 20 August 2022.[1]
In a video released by the FSB on Monday 22 August 2022, Natalia Vovk is shown entering Russia with her teenage daughter in July 2022, settling in the same building where Dugina lived and fleeing Russia for Estonia after the assassination.[2]
To avoid detection, the Ukrainian national arrived in Russia on 23 July 2022 using Donetsk People's Republic licence plates, as per FSB.
On the day of the crime, Vovk and her daughter went to the Tradition festival, where Dugina was participating, and after murdering her with a controlled explosion, they fled to Estonia via Russia's city of Pskov.
In further details, FSB affirmed that Vovk changed the licence plates on her Mini Cooper to those of Kazakhstan, then she drove to Estonia with Ukrainian plates on Sunday, following the bombing.
It is worth noting that the video presentation proved that the licence plate numbers on the car were altered three times (numbers of the DPR, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine were used).
Russian authorities also believe Vovk used her 12-year-old daughter, Sofia Mikhailovna Shaban, as a cover to move around Russia more freely.
She had rented an apartment in the same building as Dugina and was caught on the doorway camera.
A photo ID of Vovk in Ukrainian National Guard uniform was published on the Russian internet in April as part of a dox of neo-Nazi Azov regiment members. According to the FSB, her surname is Shaban, which is the surname her daughter used when entering Russia.[3]
