Meet the most dangerous man in the world
Anti-Western philosopher Aleksandr Dugin is said to hold sway over Vladimir Putin. But it is not just the Russian president who is in thrall to him. PAUL KNOTT reports
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With his unkempt beard, an obsession with the mystical and the occult, and a powerful hold over Russiaās autocratic leader, it isnāt hard to see why Aleksandr Dugin is likened to a modern-day Rasputin.
The ultra-nationalist, ultra-conservative philosopher has a considerable profile in Russia, where he is known as āPutinās brainā, his writings and utterances providing an ideological veneer for the presidentās cynical power plays.
Beyond his countryās borders, he has been a less familiar figure ā but that is now beginning to change, both as Vladimir Putinās actions become increasingly reckless, and as Dugin himself becomes a guru for far-right activists in the West.
Of course, his distinctive appearance, and unmistakable likeness to the āMad Monkā who bewitched the family of Russiaās last Tsar, have helped considerably in this. Dugin is, though, far from being āRussiaās greatest love machineā. Born in 1962, he is in a long-standing, apparently stable marriage to fellow philosophy graduate Natalia Melentyeva and has two children.
Rather than copying his dissolute lifestyle, Duginās most dangerous replication of Rasputin is in manoeuvring himself into a position of great influence over an authoritarian ruler, while avoiding any direct accountability.
Some observers, such as the Russian journalist, Alexander Nevzorov, and professor Marlene Laruelle of George Washington University, believe that Duginās sway over Putin is overstated. They note the absence of any apparent personal friendship between the two men. Nor is Dugin a known party to the dubious, shared financial interests that are a hallmark of Putinās inner circle.
But Dugin is heavily promoted by the Kremlin-controlled Russian media and has strong ties to the military. He lectured for many years at the Russian Military Staff Academy, where his writings apparently remain a core part of the curriculum.
Most of all, the connection between Duginās thoughts and Putinās actions is too great to be mere coincidence.
Dugin and Putinās views are rabidly anti-Western, anti-liberal, totalitarian and socially backward, with an oddly obsessive focus on homosexuality. Both are fervent proponents of expanding Russiaās power in pursuit of these ideas. They exult in the use of underhand methods or military force to do so.
Their common worldview appears to stem from a shared background as children of the Soviet system. When the USSR collapsed, both felt the sudden loss of empire and personal status acutely.
Putin was famously a mid-ranking KGB officer who was forced to return home from East Germany broke, jobless and with his pride badly dented. Duginās father was a colonel-general in Soviet military intelligence. While Dugin was already exploring fascism and questioning communism before the Eastern Bloc disintegrated, he nonetheless mourned the loss of Russian power.
The Russian presidentās repeated recent aggression is partly the product of his ultra-cynical pragmatism. These actions create a crucial diversion from the domestic repression, corruption and economic failings of his rule. This helps Putin to hold on to the power upon which his personal security and assets depend.
But Duginās rise to prominence has proceeded in lockstep with Putinās growing nationalism and there is little doubt that Putinās behaviour is strongly influenced by Duginās ideas.
Rather than being original, Duginās āEurasianistā ideology is mostly a hotch-potch of earlier anti-Bolshevik, Italian fascist and German Nazi thoughts, adapted to Russiaās current circumstances.
As Charles Clover wrote in Black Wind, White Snow: The Rise of Russiaās New Nationalism , the original Eurasianism stemmed from the ideas of turn of the 20th century academics like Sir Halfold Mackinder, who saw geography as the most important factor in world politics. This pitted Russia, with its enormous Steppe lands and harsh winters, against the preeminent sea powers such as Britain and, later, the United States.
Exiled Russian anti-Bolshevik writers such as Nikolai Trubetzkoy expanded on this notion in the 1920s in books like Exodus to the East . They argued that Russiaās exposed geography and vastness mean its rulers have no choice but to focus on securing its territory. This situation compels them to think imperially, consuming and assimilating dangerous populations on every border.
Dugin has reinterpreted these ideas in publications such as The War of the Continents and The Foundations of Geopolitics to prophesise an inevitable conflict between the land power (Russia-led Eurasia) and the sea power (the US-led West). This conflict will continue until one side is destroyed completely. (Spoiler alert: he is convinced the liberal West will be the loser).
Dugin has grafted traditional ultra-conservative Russian beliefs on to these disturbing geopolitical ideas. Russia, he claims, is a unique civilisation based on hard-line Orthodox religiosity and a powerful, authoritarian state. The country has a messianic mission to lead the fight against the alien Western doctrine of rationalism.
Contrary to the original Eurasianists who were largely anti-Nazi, Dugin has incorporated fascist ideas into his prospectus. He is a devotee of the 1930s pro-Nazi writings of German philosopher, Martin Heidegger, amongst other more unequivocally extremist thinkers of the inter-war era. Duginās resulting ideology replicates the Nazis by prizing blood and soil ethnic mysticism and personal submission to authority over the rule of law and individual freedom.
While Dugin has modified his anti-Semitism in recognition of Putinās increasingly close relationship with Israelās right-wing Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, his admiration for aspects of Nazism remains open. He has praised the Waffen-SS as āan intellectual oasis in the framework of the National Socialist regimeā.
Dugin has also parted company with his Eurasianist predecessors by vastly expanding, with little attempt at justification, the area he believes should be subjected to Russian dominance. Rather than restricting it to, roughly, the territory of the former Soviet Union, he arbitrarily incorporates most of Europe, China and Mongolia, and recommends turning south towards the Indian Ocean.
The influence of Duginās ideas on Putinās domestic policies can be clearly seen in the Russian presidentās growing authoritarianism and increasing focus on co-opting the Russian Orthodox church over recent years. This includes moral crusades against supposed Western infections such as homosexuality and the degeneracy of artists and campaigners like the feminist Pussy Riot collective.
Externally, Duginās impact can be seen in Putinās creation of the Eurasian Economic Union, which several former Soviet nations have been coerced into joining, and the more nakedly aggressive invasion of Ukraine.
In the latter case, Dugin is so confident of his position in Putinās orbit that he has ventured some mild criticism, exhorting his president to go further and seize more of Ukraine. According to Dugin, but not the vast majority of Ukrainians, Ukraine āwelcomes Russia, waits for it, pleads for Russia to comeā.
Duginās influence on Putin is further evidenced by the Kremlinās extensive support for fascist and other right-wing extremist parties across the West. The Russian regime regularly deploys Dugin to represent it in meetings with far-right visitors from Europe, such as Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini and GĆ”bor Vona of Hungaryās Jobbik neo-fascists.
Duginās long-standing cultivation of western extremists has been widely reciprocated. He has become a cult figure for many of them, including former KKK leader David Duke. A younger American white-supremacist acolyte, Richard Spencer, even married Duginās English translator and promoter in the US, Nina Kouprianova.
Perhaps Duginās most dangerous Western admirer of all is Steve Bannon, who has regularly expressed his support for Duginās Eurasianist ideology. The president that Bannon helped place in the White House, Donald Trump, is actively engaged in fulfilling Dugin and Putinās agenda by weakening Western alliances such as NATO and aligning the US with pro-Kremlin, right-wing fanatics around the world.
Professing patriotism while favouring the interests of a self-proclaimed enemy state over those of your own country is an integral part of the incoherence of far-right nationalism.
Alexander Dugin is peddling a rehashed version of the fascist ideology that once led the world into catastrophe. But the substantial influence Dugin exerts over ultra-powerful people like Putin and, indirectly, Trump, makes him a frightening figure.
Rasputin
A society figure, Rasputin met the Russian ruler Nicholas II in 1905.
The following year he began acting as a healer for the Tsarās son, who suffered from hemophilia. He was a divisive figure at court and became increasingly unpopular, during the First World War, as his influence grew and the nationās fortunes fell.
In December 1916, he was assassinated by a group of noblemen, opposed to his closeness with the royal family.
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