Photograph: SPUTNIK/Alamy

The daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue often referred to as “Putin’s brain” has been killed in a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow, according to Russia’s investigative committee.

Darya Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 12 miles (20km) west of the capital near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy at about 9.30pm local time (1930 BST), according to investigators.

Witnesses said debris was thrown all over the road as the car was engulfed in flames before crashing into a fence.

“An explosive device allegedly installed in a Toyota Land Cruiser car went off at full speed on a public highway, and then the car caught fire,” investigators wrote in their report of the incident. “The female driver died on the spot. The identity of the deceased has been established: it is the journalist and political scientist Darya Dugina.”

Investigators work at the site of the suspected car bomb attack that killed Darya Dugina on the outskirts of Moscow. Photograph: Investigative committee Of Russia/Reuters

Andrey Krasnov, a friend of Dugina and the head of the Russian Horizon social movement, confirmed the reports, according to the news agency Tass.