Who Is Alexander Dugin? What Does He Really Advocate?
Edited By Rojat Welat, Istanbul
On the evening of August 20, 2022, an SUV in Moscow exploded suddenly, killing a woman in the car. The woman is the 30-year-old Russian investigative female reporter Dalia Dukina, who has traveled to the Donbass front line for interviews many times.
According to the media, this car was supposed to be taken by her father, Alexander Dugin, but by coincidence, Dugin took another car.
Many people are suspecting that the main target of this bombing is Alexander Dugin, because Dugin has several very famous code names in the Western world, such as: “Russia’s most dangerous philosopher”, “Putin’s brain”, ” Rasputin, the demon monk of the new age” and so on.
Alexander Dugin was born in Moscow in 1962 into a family of senior officials, his father was an officer of the former Soviet Central Intelligence Agency.
In the 1990s, Duggin became famous as a writer with many far-right views. For example, in 1991, Duggin published an article “The Great War of The Continents” (The Great War of The Continents), expounding This led to his vision of Russia as an “eternal Rome” as opposed to the “eternal Carthage” of the individualistic and materialistic West.
In the early 1990s, Dugin was also active in politics, co-founding the Russian National Bolshevik Party.
Officially a professor of sociology at Moscow State University, Dugin is an ardent Russian nationalist and an important geopolitical researcher in Russia.
In 1997, Dugin published an important book “Foundations of Geopolitics” grams of Eurasia will be the “last lighthouse” of human civilization.
If only this is the case, Dugin will not be considered “one of the most dangerous people in Russia” by the Western media.
Dugin’s danger lies above all in his professionalism.
Dugin is not only a sociologist, but also a historian, thinker, and philosopher… He can speak ten languages, and videos of his fluent lectures or lectures in English can be seen on various video sites.
Second, Dugin experienced the glory and decline of the Soviet Union first-hand.
He was born in a high-class family in the former Soviet Union, experienced the glory and disintegration of the Soviet Union, and later experienced the deep malice of the West for Russian shock therapy.
After studying the entire world history and changes in world ideology, and personally experiencing the glory and decline of Russia, he proposed the fourth political theory with reference to Marx’s philosophy, Mackinder’s geopolitical theory, Huntington’s theory of conflict of civilizations, etc. !
Dugin believes that Russia needs a new political thought. Russia’s history proves that liberalism is not suitable for Russia, and communism and fascism are also not accepted by Russia. The essence of the fourth political theory is still the “New Eurasianism” thought that Dugin once propagated.
Duggin claims that a fourth political theory is the “post-liberal alternative”: it should be “against postmodernity”, against “post-industrial society”, against “realization of liberal intentions”, against “globalization and its logic and also reject “Technology Foundation” theory.
Duggin also emphasized the importance of theology and tradition in the “Fourth Political Theory,” claiming that “theology is returning and becoming an important part of the Fourth Political Theory.”
Dugin also emphasized the significance of mythology and ancient civilizations to the fourth political theory, advocating the restoration of the “New Age”, that is, the ancient theological culture and traditional values which existed before the modern society.
It would be fine to say that Dugin’s theory is only popular in academic circles, it may be just one of countless social theories; but Dugin’s theory has penetrated deeply into the Russian high-level government authorities.
In 1998, Dugin became an advisor to Seleznev, then Chairman of the Russian State Duma. It was during this period that he proposed “New Eurasianism”, that is, Russia should uphold the mission of the Orthodox Church and establish a land value identity system.
And Dugin’s diplomatic philosophy is: form an alliance with Germany in Europe and split Europe through Russia-Germany alliance; In the east, it advocated to form an alliance with Japan, bringing China under the leadership of Russia, serving as the world’s factory, providing Russia with products, and becoming an auxiliary force for Russia’s next military operations in the Pacific.
In the south, diplomatic philosophy advocates to form an alliance with Iran and encouraged Iran to unify whole the Middle East under Iran.
After Putin came to power, Dugin expressed his full support for Putin, and called Putin the ” President of Eurasianism “, striving to promote ” New Eurasianism ” to become Russia’s ” national thought ” in the Putin era.
Dugin also has various close ties to Putin’s United Russia party. The United Russia party also included “Russian Conservatism ” in its party platform in 2009.
Therefore, although Dugin did not hold any position in the Russian government, the Western media directly said that Dugin’s works “have readers in the Kremlin .”
Dugin also directly admitted in a lecture that he once explained his geopolitical theory to the Russian military, so that the military could understand why NATO continued to expand eastward after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and why NATO targeted aimed its guns at Russia’s forehead.
In the Russian army, Dugin’s book “The Foundations of Geopolitics” was a huge success. In keeping with foreign policy (and Dugin’s own rhetoric), the book was also designated as a textbook for Russian military schools.
In this book, Dugin said that Russia wants to disintegrate the alliance between the United States and Europe and other countries, and it will also provoke turmoil and division in the United States.
On page 367 of the first edition of this book, Dugin wrote:
“It is especially important to introduce and promote geopolitical turmoil into U.S. domestic life, encourage separatism of all types and ethnic, social, and racial conflict, and actively support dissenting actions of all kinds—extremism, racism, and different denominations, thereby destabilizing the domestic political process in the United States. Therefore, it is logical to support the isolationist tendency in American politics…”
Before the outbreak of the Crimean crisis in 2014, Dugin was still seen as somewhat an extremist scholar;
However, after the 2014 Crimean crisis, many Western countries directly believed that Dugin was Putin’s core think tank, and even directly stated in the title of the article that Dugin was “Putin’s brain ” and the architect behind Russia’s Crimea decision.
During the Crimean crisis in 2014, Putin publicly mentioned the term “New Russia “. Eastern and Southern Ukraine, and Dugin is credited with rediscovering these concept.
Dugin has made remarks saying that Russia’s failure to restore control of Ukraine as soon as possible will be “a great danger ” for Eurasian Ideal.
In 2015, Dugin was sanctioned by the United States on the grounds that he was accused of participating in the recruitment of pro-Russian volunteers to fight in Luhansk.
Some Western media regard Dugin as the source and architect of of Russia’s expansionist ideology, and rank Dugin with ISIS’s Baghdadi, the leader of the extremist organization Islamic State, and others.
The American right-wing website “Breitbart News” compared Dugin him Rasputin, the “monk” who influenced Tsar Nicholas II.
During Trump’s election, Dugin once said: “The United States under Trump’s leadership is not only not an opponent but also a potential ally.”
DUGİN AND TRUMP
Dugin is seen as the core figure connecting Putin and Trump.
Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on February 24 this year, the relationship between Russia and Belarus has further deepened. In 2021, the two sides signed a series of documents such as the Union State Integration Act and the Union State Military Doctrine, clarifying the implementation of the establishment of Russia from 2021 to 2023.
It can be said that Dugin’s thought of Eurasianism doctrine has been put into practice in Russia.
After the outbreak of the Russo-Ukraine War, Dugin and his daughter have also been supporting Russia’s military operations. This time Dugin’s daughter died in a car explosion. Some people commented that “terrorists from the Ukrainian regime” were involved in this incident, and their target was Dugin.
Dugin is an extremist Russian chauvinist who advocates the creation of a strong Eurasian regime that would resist and defeat the representative of the sea power, the United States.
And among his theories, there is only one core of Eurasia – That is Russia …..But although Dugin’s ideals are very rich, the reality in Russia is very bony! With Russia’s $1.78 trillion 2021 GDP data can it support Dugin’s ideal?