In a twist of fate that bears a hallmark of the enduring riddle that is Russia, the deeply polarizing Russian figure dubbed Putin’s Rasputin for his rabid anti-Western views has in recent days seen his image soften in the wake of the killing of his daughter in a car bombing attack that was likely meant for him. Video images of Alexander Dugin viewing the smoldering remains of the car that 29-year-old Darya Dugina was driving outside Moscow Saturday night, his hands clasped behind his head in a pose of shock and disbelief, have rippled across Russian and global media. 

The car that exploded belonged to Mr. Dugin and there are wildly conflicting accounts of who detonated the bomb via remote control, with a secret Russian resistance group claiming responsibility and Moscow predictably blaming Ukraine. The unexpectedly haunting yet deeply humanizing video images of Mr. Dugin were reinforced today during a farewell ceremony for Dugina at Moscow. There, the clearly emotional, white-bearded Mr. Dugin said, “She had no fear. The last words she said during our conversation at the Tradition festival” that she attended Saturday night “were, ‘Father, I feel like a warrior, I feel like a hero. I want to be one, I don’t want any different fate. I want to be with my people, with my country.’”

It was not a formal eulogy, and Mr. Dugin is not a priest, but the choice of words underscores his prominence as a pro-Russian ideologue of the highest order. His anti-Western sermonizing is what has invited comparisons to Grigori Rasputin, the Russian mystic who inveigled his way into the family of Tsar Nicholas II, the last Russian emperor, and wielded so much influence that he contributed to the overthrow of the Romanov dynasty, which paved the way for the Russian Revolution. The political link of Mr. Dugin to Vladimir Putin is unquestionable: On Monday, the Russian strongman himself awarded Mr. Dugin’s daughter the Order of Courage. 

The link is also deeply troubling, particularly considering Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine that Mr. Dugin has endorsed wholeheartedly from day one, if not before. 

Also dubbed “Putin’s brain” by some in the West, he peddles a spiritual and political ideology that demands a restoration of Russia’s global influence and the unity of all ethnic Russians, whether inside or outside the present confines of the Russian Federation. His “Novorossiya,” or “New Russia” concept is one the Kremlin used to justify its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea — the strategic Black Sea peninsula with Russian roots — and to bolser separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. 

In 2014 he reportedly called for Russians to “kill, kill, kill” Ukrainians. Both he and his daughter had been sanctioned by Washington and London for allegedly spreading disinformation about Ukraine. 

Seldom at a loss for words, Mr. Dugin has said that “the American empire should be destroyed.” His words at the farewell ceremony for his almost equally firebrand daughter, if largely unsentimental, were sparing. At least once, his voice almost broke. 

This does not at all mean that the latter day Rasptin has turned over a new leaf. An article in the Financial Times noted that Mr. Dugin “and his sponsor, the Russian banker Konstantin Malofeev, have cultivated ties with hard-right parties such as Austria’s Freedom Party … and France’s National Rally — maintaining links through conferences, lectures and meetings in Russian and western Europe.” Also, according to that report, “in China, Iran and Turkey, Dugin has become a spokesman and coordinator for those who are seeking to destroy America’s global hegemony.”

Of course, no one seeks to shatter American prestige and influence in international matters more than Vladimir Putin. The Moscow Times reported that the mourners at Tuesday’s ceremony “included high-profile politicians, parliamentary leaders and state media journalists” who paid their respects to Dugina at Moscow’s Ostankino TV center, where security and police presence were boosted ahead of the event. The soaring Ostankino Tower, completed in 1974, is a Moscow landmark. In the sprawling Russian capital, there could hardly be a more symbolically Russian venue, other than the Kremlin itself.

That the Kremlin holds Mr. Dugin in such high regard alone would make him a target — and possibly his daughter too, though Dugina was likely caught on the wrong Moscow road at the wrong time. Given that this political act of vengeance is also a personal tragedy in the extreme, the roundly toxic Mr. Dugin will probably tone down the anti-American, pro-Putin rhetoric for a little while. But don’t count on it lasting for long.