With his extravagant beard and unbridled rhetoric, Oleksandr Dugin has found that it is not difficult for him to attract attention, writes the Financial Times. Some even called this far-right philosopher “Putin’s brain” or “Rasputin”. But other commentators dismissed the idea that the Kremlin actually took Dugin seriously, citing his expulsion from Moscow State University in 2014.

However, it is obvious that someone really took Dugin seriously. Last weekend, his daughter Daria Dugina, a nationalist journalist, was killed near Moscow. Many speculate that Dagin himself was actually the target.

Whatever the personal relationship between Putin and Dugin, the Russian leader’s decision to invade Ukraine gave birth to ideas that Dugin had been promoting since the early 1990s. In his 1997 book Fundamentals of Geopolitics, which is required reading at the Russian military academy, Dugin argued that “Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical significance.”

Asked about his influence on Putin at a conference at Shanghai’s Fudan University in 2018, Dagin responded modestly, though he noted that he advocated Crimea joining Russia in the 1990s, “long before Putin.”

Dugin’s presence in China is relevant. He has used his perceived closeness to Putin, as well as his language skills (he is fluent in English and French), to play a prominent international role.

In China, Iran and Turkey, Dugin has become the spokesman and coordinator of those who want to destroy America’s world hegemony. On the other hand, in Europe and the USA, he established relations with far-right forces, positioning himself as an ally in the fight against “globalism”.

In his series of lectures in Fudan, Dagin argued that Russia and China should jointly build a “multipolar world order” that would end American dominance. At a meeting in April, the foreign ministers of Russia and China supported this idea, and Sergey Lavrov assured Wang Yi that “together” the two countries “will move towards a multipolar, just, democratic world order.”

According to Dugin’s worldview, the continental states of the Eurasian massif, with Russia in the center, are natural rivals of the maritime world, led by the United States and previously by Britain. Dagin praised the Nazi philosopher Carl Schmitt for his “clear understanding of the ‘enemy'” facing Europe, Russia and Asia, which is the US with its […] island ally, England.”

These anti-Western and illiberal ideas also found a receptive audience in Iran. Dugin often visited the country and is especially valued by the radical elements of the regime. In 2015, he flattered his Iranian hosts by telling them that Iran was “the main base of the war against modernity” (probably a good thing). Dugin also regularly visited Turkey at the invitation of the ruling AKP party, where he united anti-American forces in the government.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Dugin and his sponsor, the Russian banker Konstantin Malofeev, developed relationships with radical right-wing parties such as the Freedom Party of Austria, the League of Italy and the French National Assembly, maintaining these ties through conferences, lectures and meetings organized in Russia and in the West. Europe.

In the US, Dagin’s natural allies are the extreme right. At the start of Trump’s presidency, Dagin gave an interview to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in which he expressed his hopes for “Mr. Trump, who I support wholeheartedly.” He told Jones that pro-Trump and pro-Putin forces must unite against “our common enemy, the globalists.”

Richard Spencer, an American far-right activist who was caught on video shortly after Trump’s victory shouting “Congratulations to Trump!” and while performing a Nazi salute, he also has ties to a Russian nationalist. Spencer’s wife translated Dagin’s books into English.

During a recent speech to an audience of Chinese and Pakistani scientists, Dagin assured them that Russia would use nuclear weapons rather than accept defeat in Ukraine. One question now is whether the weekend blast will prompt the Kremlin to adopt an even more aggressive policy in war and domestic politics.

Russia’s secret service, the FSB, now claims to have cracked the case. He accuses Ukraine of ordering the murder and claims that the alleged killer has already fled Russia, crossing the border with Estonia.

These accusations could be used to justify more intensive bombing of Kyiv and the targeting of government buildings and officials. And if the Kremlin decides to confront Estonia by threatening to back its extradition request for an alleged criminal, then that would put Russia on a collision course with a NATO state.

The Ukrainian government immediately denied any involvement in the attack. That will not change the mood in Moscow. Voices of extremist nationalism, exemplified by people like Dugin, have long urged Russia to adopt even more ruthless tactics.

Dagin specialized in violent and inflammatory rhetoric delivered in conference rooms and television studios, a safe distance from any actual fighting. But over the weekend, the front line reached Moscow.

After experiencing so much suffering, few Ukrainians will shed a tear for Dugin, the man who in 2014 called on the Russians to “kill, kill, kill” Ukrainians. Others, less affected by the conflict, would find it hard to believe that there could be a person in this world who deserved to have their child blown up right in front of them.

The material was made with the support of the Rador agency