With his extravagant beard and wild rhetoric, it was easy for Alexander Dugin to attract attention. Some even call the far-right philosopher “the brain of Putin” or “Rasputin.” At the same time, other commentators doubt that the Kremlin takes Dugin seriously, pointing out that he lost his job at Moscow State University in 2014.
Nevertheless, someone clearly took Dugin very seriously. Last weekend, his daughter Daria Dugina, a nationalist journalist, was killed in a car bomb outside Moscow. It is widely believed that Dugin himself was the real target.
Whatever the personal relationship between Putin and Dugin, the Russian leader’s decision to invade Ukraine brought to fruition the ideas that Dugin had been promoting since the early 1990s.
In his 1997 book “Fundamentals of Geopolitics,” which was included in the curriculum of the Russian Military General Staff Academy, Dugin argued that “Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical significance.”
When asked about his influence on Putin at a lecture in Shanghai in 2018, Dugin responded modestly, but pointed out that he advocated the annexation of Crimea by Russia in the 1990s, “long before Putin.”
Dugin’s presence in China was noticeable. And overall, he has used his perceived closeness to Putin and his linguistic abilities (he speaks fluent English and French) to carve out a significant international role.
In China, Iran and Turkey, Dugin has become a spokesman for those seeking to destroy America’s global hegemony. Meanwhile, in Europe and the United States, he maintains contact with far-right forces, positioning himself as an ally in the fight against “globalism.”
In his series of lectures in Shanghai, Dugin argued that Russia and China must work together to build a “multipolar world order” by ending US dominance. At a meeting in April, the foreign ministers of Russia and China supported the idea, and Sergei Lavrov assured Wang Yi that the two countries would “move together towards a multipolar, fair, democratic world order.”
In Dugin’s worldview, the continental countries of the Eurasian massif centered on Russia are naturally opposed to the maritime world led by the United States, and before that, Britain. Dugin praised Nazi philosopher Carl Schmitt for his “clear understanding of the “enemy” facing Europe, Russia and Asia, which is the United States along with its “island ally England.”
These anti-Western and illiberal ideas have found their audience in Iran. Dugin was a frequent visitor and was especially popular among hardliners of the regime.
In 2015, he flattered his Iranian hosts by telling them that Iran was “the main base for the war against modernity” (apparently a good thing). Dugin also visited Turkey regularly, sometimes as a guest of the ruling AKP, and collaborated with anti-American forces in the government.
Meanwhile in Europe, Dugin and his sponsor, Russian banker Konstantin Malofeev, forged ties with far-right parties such as the Austrian Freedom Party, the Italian League and the French National Rally, maintaining connections through conferences, lectures and meetings in Russia and Western Europe.
In the US, Dugin’s natural partners are the far right. Early in Trump’s presidency, Dugin gave an interview to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, expressing his hopes for “Mr. Trump, whom I support with all my heart.” He told Jones that pro-Trump and pro-Putin forces must unite against “our common enemy, the globalists.”
Richard Spencer, an American far-right figure who was filmed shouting “Hail Trump” and saluting shortly after Trump’s victory, is also linked to the Russian nationalist. Spencer’s wife translated Dugin’s work into English.
In a recent speech to Chinese and Pakistani scientists, Dugin assured his audience that Russia would rather use nuclear weapons than accept defeat in Ukraine.
One question now is whether last weekend’s car bombing will lead to even greater Kremlin aggression in war and domestic politics.
If Putin and his cronies are blamed for the attack by internal enemies, then the stage could be set for increased domestic repression – just as the 1934 assassination of Soviet politician Sergei Kirov led to the first of Stalin’s great purges. If the Kremlin blames Western intelligence agencies, Russia’s campaign of international assassinations could intensify.
However, the most obvious culprits for the Kremlin will be the Ukrainians. The killing came a week in which Ukraine has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to strike behind Russian lines. The Ukrainian government denies any connection with the explosion. But if the Kremlin concludes that Kyiv is behind the attack—or finds it convenient to say so—then a further violent escalation of the conflict is likely.
Dugin specializes in violent and inflammatory rhetoric broadcast in lecture halls and television studios, a safe distance from actual combat. But last weekend the front line approached Moscow. Having suffered so much, few Ukrainians will cry for Dugin, the man who in 2014 called on Russians to “kill, kill, kill” Ukrainians. Other people far removed from the conflict may have a harder time believing that someone deserves to have their child blown up in front of them.