With long hair and a grey-white beard, Dugin is arguably one of Russia’s best-known ideologues and has been variously described as “Putin’s brain” or “Putin’s Rasputin”. However, his actual influence on the Russian president remains a matter of intense debate. Born in 1962 into a high-ranking military family, Dugin spent his early years as an anti-communist dissident. He joined various eccentric avant-garde collectives that sprung up in the last two decades of the Soviet Union, where he was known for flirting with the politics of Nazi Germany. He came to national attention in the 1990s as a writer for the far-right Den newspaper. In a 1991 manifesto published in Den, Dugin first laid out his anti-liberal and ultra-nationalist vision of Russia, a country he said was destined to confront an individualistic, materialistic West. In the tumultuous years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Dugin co-founded the National Bolshevik party with novelist Eduard Limonov, fusing fascist and communist-nostalgic rhetoric and symbolism. Dugin’s worldview is most clearly articulated in his 1997 publication The Foundations of Geopolitics, which reportedly became a textbook at the Russian general staff academy and cemented his transition from dissident to prominent pillar of the conservative establishment. Daughter of Putin ally Alexander Dugin killed by car bomb in Moscow – video In the book, Dugin laid out his vision of dividing the world, calling on Russia to rebuild its influence through annexations and alliances, while declaring his opposition to Ukraine as a sovereign state. “Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical significance, no special cultural significance or world significance, no geographical uniqueness, no national exclusivity,” he wrote. “Its specific territorial ambitions represent a huge risk for all of Eurasia and, without solving the Ukrainian problem, it is generally absurd to talk about continental politics.” Twenty-five years later, Russia’s president echoed some of Dugin’s views on Ukraine in his 4,000-word essay on the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians, which many saw as a blueprint for the invasion he launched just six months after its publication. However, it was far from certain that Dugin’s radical anti-Western thoughts would eventually become mainstream in Moscow when Putin became president in 2000. Buoyed by high oil prices, the newly elected leader seemed to be overseeing the country’s integration into the global capitalist system, while ordinary Russians embraced Western fast food and pop culture. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Dugin’s illiberal totalitarian ideas were deemed irrelevant and he found himself on the fringes of political power. However, he continued to write and lecture, further developing the concept of Eurasianism, the Russian-flavored, fascist political doctrine that sees Moscow as the center of a rival empire in the Atlantic west. Dugin’s position changed in 2012 when Putin regained power after mass anti-government protests and the Russian leader embraced a conservative vision for his country. Dugin felt further vindicated when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and launched a bloody war in the Donbass following the pro-Western revolution in Kyiv. “I think we should kill, kill, kill [Ukrainians]there can’t be another conversation,” Dugin said in a video addressed to his followers at the time, making him one of the most hated Russian public figures in Kyiv. Despite Dugin’s violent rhetoric, he continued to travel abroad, maintaining close ties with European New Right thinkers who also denounced liberalism, feminism, and US dominance. He was also a frequent guest at conferences around the world, having a conversation with the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy in Amsterdam as recently as 2019. Dugin reportedly traveled without security in and out of Russia, which some were quick to point to as one of the possible explanations behind Saturday’s attack, which was allegedly intended to kill him. Dugin’s actual influence over Putin’s day-to-day operations has long been a matter of debate, with some Russia experts calling him “Putin’s spiritual guide” and others, mainly those in Moscow, saying he was an irrelevant figure he wanted to appear close to. to the Kremlin for personal gain. Dugin reportedly demanded up to €500 (£425) for interviews with Western media. The two men have never been photographed together and Dugin has never held an official position within the state. “This caricature of a pseudo-intellectual skirt is definitely not part of the decision-making system,” wrote Leonid Volkov, a key ally of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, hours after the car bomb blast. Nevertheless, his brand of Russian nationalism has become undeniably popular with much of Russia’s political elite, and his views helped shape the ideas behind the invasion of Ukraine. The murder of Dugin’s daughter Daria, a pro-Kremlin journalist ideologically aligned with her father, will send shockwaves through the upper echelons of Russian society. Footage released across Russia of the burning car will also bring back memories of the turbulent 1990s, when car bombings were routine, a dark feature of a bygone era that Putin’s presidency has pledged to end.
