It is a title plucked from obscurity and plastered on front webpages around the world: Natalia Vovk, the lady Russia suggests blew up the daughter of ‘Putin’s Rasputin’.
The FSB claims she is a veteran of Mariupol’s Azov battalion turned spy, who used months tracking Darya Dugina ahead of planting 800g of explosives below the driver’s seat of her auto on August 20 and rigging it to blow as she left a pageant close to Moscow.
But Kyiv has denied any hyperlink to the slaying, the Azov Battalion states it has no record of Vovk having served with them, and proof that has emerged from social media accounts paints a image that is at odds with Moscow’s account.
So, just who is Natalia Vovk genuinely? This is what we know about her…
Natalia Vovk has been named by the FSB as the girl responsible for blowing up the daughter of a person of Putin’s advisers who was also a outstanding Russian ideologue
The FSB states Natalia was born in the town of Mariupol, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, in 1976 – when it was even now component of the Soviet Union.
Pro-Kremlin Telegram accounts have also shared what they feel to be a new surname she later on adopted: Shaban.
And it appears there is at the very least some truth to that data.
A now-deleted profile on VKontakte – Russia’s equal of Facebook – displays a profile belonging to a Natalia Shaban (Vovk) who lived in Mariupol.
Her account was past active in 2016 and experienced a number of dozen followers.
The FSB also statements Natalia introduced her daughter – Sofia – with her into Russia as she spied on Dugin just before the killing.
And pro-Russia social media accounts have been sharing a identify that they believe that belongs to Natalia’s son: Danil Shaban.
Vkontakte details from the exact deleted profile uncovered by investigative web-site Proekt does seem to ensure that information as very well.
Natalia does without a doubt look to have two young children – a boy and a female – and different Fb, VKontakte and TikTok profiles show up beneath the name Danil Shaban stating he was born in Mariupol in the year 2000.
But, just after this, the accounts presented by Russian and Ukrainian sources diverge.
Russia claims this is Natalia’s army ID, which they say identifies her as a member of Mariupol’s Azov battalion – though Kyiv disputed this
Russia’s account
The FSB states Natalia crossed its border from Ukraine on July 23 driving a Mini Cooper with range plates issued by the so-named Donetsk People’s Republic – the occupied region of Ukraine which now controls Mariupol.
Spies have published CCTV footage that they say demonstrates her at the border crossing level, as guards inspect the automobile.
They say she then modified the plates for ones issued by Kazakhstan and manufactured her way to Moscow, the place she rented an apartment in the similar building as Dugina.
She is also alleged to have altered her hair color from blonde to brunette to steer clear of detection, witnessed in more CCTV introduced by the FSB which they say was taken in the stairwell of her condominium block.
Natalia is accused of paying months tracking Dugina, in advance of planting a bomb beneath her vehicle as she attended a regular poetry pageant at the Zakharovo estate close to Moscow on Saturday with father Alexander.
The FSB say Natalia crossed into Russia back again in July driving a Mini Cooper with amount plates issued by the occupied Donetsk area of eastern Ukraine
Russian intelligence say Natalia utilised the Mini to adhere to target Darya Dugina about for months, right before planting the bomb that killed her
After the bomb was planted, the FSB claims Natalia swapped car plate all over again – this time for Ukrainian ones – and drove to Estonia, exactly where she crossed into the EU.
Professional-Kremlin Telegram channels say she has moved westward due to the fact then, and was past spotted checking into a resort in Austria with two females and a youngster.
They also declare to have uncovered an advert on Ukrainian social media seeking to market the Mini Cooper she was driving.
RIA Novosti, Russia’s primary newswire, claims to have interviewed Natalia’s father who informed them that she served with the Ukrainian armed forces.
He stated she experienced retired for ‘health reasons’ and did not participate in anti-terrorism operations in the Donbas – the identify Ukraine gave for the conflict smouldering in its eastern areas in the wake of Russia’s very first invasion in 2014.
Natalia still left Ukraine as a refugee ‘some time ago’, he said, introducing that he had no strategy she experienced long gone to Russia.
She termed home a couple of days back, he included, and told him that she was in Lithuania.
The FSB have also posted a photo of what they say is Natalia’s ID issued by Ukraine’s armed forces which they say proves she was portion of Azov.
Ukraine’s account
Kyiv has not denied Natalia’s existence, but has strongly denied acquiring anything at all to do with Dugina’s loss of life.
And info put out by Kyiv and uncovered by different pro-Ukraine resources disputes critical sections of Russia’s narrative.
A spokesman for the Azov battalion informed Ukrainian media that Natalia experienced by no means served with them – since there are no girls soldiers in their ranks.
A considering that-deleted profile on Russian social media appears to suggest Natalia is a authentic man or woman, but Ukraine disputes most of the FSB’s account – like Kyiv’s involvement
The supply additional that the ID card proven off by the FSB is truly for the National Guard, and would not be carried by an Azov soldier.
He claimed pencil marks on the ID exhibit it was invalidated because the woman experienced married and modified her very last identify.
The soldier speculated that the invalid ID had been positioned in archives of Ukraine’s countrywide guard in Mariupol – a developing Russia now occupies – and had been uncovered by their troops and manipulated for propaganda reasons.
Net sleuths also claimed to have uncovered proof that the photograph on the ID experienced been manipulated.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram accounts also uncovered what seems to a profile revealing that Natalia’s very first partner – recognized as Andrey Vovk – had links to professional-Russian rebels in Donbas.
Andrey, whose identity seems on a databases tracking Ukrainian ‘traitors’, is accused of serving to to organise a sham referendum on breaking absent from Ukraine.
All of which implies, though does not prove, that Natalia may well have harboured sympathies with Russia additional than with Ukraine.
Ukraine statements Natalia’s ex-partner, Andrey, was basically a pro-Russian sympathiser who experimented with to organise a sham referendum in Donbas soon after Putin’s very last invasion
Proekt also uncovered inconsistencies in social media accounts.
In accordance to Danil Shaban’s Vkontakte web page he was born in the calendar year 2000, which would make him 22 yrs outdated. And in accordance to the FSB, Sofia Shaban was 12 many years old when she arrived with her mom into Russia two months back.
Photographs of Natalia on social media present her with two children – a boy and a lady – who equally bear a hanging resemblance to her and to each and every-other, but who surface to be a similar age alternatively than 10 years aside.
Further more, the site claims the advert for the Mini Cooper was posted the day right before the blast and that a movie on Danil’s TikTok shows him driving a related auto in Kyiv on August 16 – when Natalia was supposed to be with the auto in Moscow.
The conflicting accounts of Natalia’s genuine identity even further muddy the waters of an presently murky scenario, with resources suggesting the bomb was the function of disgruntled Russian elites targeting Putin’s inner circle or an FSB ‘false flag’ procedure.
Kyiv maintains the FSB is driving the entire procedure, created to cook up a pretext to escalate indiscriminate violence versus Ukrainian civilians and the government to coincide with the country’s independence day.
Darya (still left) was killed on August 20 when her car exploded on the way house from a poetry competition – a blast witnessed by father Alexander (proper)
More adding gasoline to the hearth, a below-to unknown rebel group inside of Russia has emerged to choose duty for the attack – calling on their own the National Republican Military.
Saying themselves via Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian member of parliament turned-rebel, the team declare to be dependable for a quantity of partisan assaults across Russia opposing Putin’s rule and his war.
‘Our target is to end the destruction of Russia and its neighbours, to quit the routines of a handful of Kremlin businessmen who have sucked on the wealth of our persons and are committing crimes inside of and outside the house the country’, their manifesto says.
