Alexander Dugin

Alexan­der Dug­in is a con­tro­ver­sial Russ­ian polit­i­cal philoso­pher and ide­o­logue, wide­ly regard­ed as a lead­ing the­o­rist of neo-Eurasian­ism and the “Fourth Polit­i­cal The­o­ry.” Born on Jan­u­ary 7, 1962, Dug­in ini­tial­ly emerged as an anti-com­mu­nist dis­si­dent before co-found­ing the Nation­al Bol­she­vik Par­ty in 1993. His most influ­en­tial work, Foun­da­tions of Geopol­i­tics (1997), advo­cates for Rus­si­a’s expan­sion­ist strat­e­gy to counter West­ern influ­ence. Dugin’s phi­los­o­phy rejects lib­er­al­ism, com­mu­nism, and fas­cism, propos­ing a new polit­i­cal frame­work root­ed in tra­di­tion­al­ism and nation­al­ism. He envi­sions a mul­ti­po­lar world led by Rus­sia as the cen­ter of a Eurasian empire. Often described as “Putin’s brain,” Dug­in has no for­mal ties to the Krem­lin but sup­ports poli­cies such as the annex­a­tion of Crimea and the inva­sion of Ukraine. His ideas have been crit­i­cized as fas­cist and are influ­en­tial among far-right move­ments glob­al­ly. Dugin’s daugh­ter, Darya Dug­i­na, was assas­si­nat­ed in 2022, fur­ther spot­light­ing his con­tentious role in geopolitics.

Ref­er­ences:

Wikipedia: Alek­san­dr Dugin
Michael Miller­man: Dugin’s Influ­ence on West­ern Thought
Strate­giecs: Alexan­der Dug­in and the Eurasian System
First Things: Alexan­der Dug­in Explained
CNN: Alexan­der Dug­in Profile