User:ScienceDawns/sandbox

Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin (Алекса́ндр Ге́льевич Ду́гин; born 7 January 1962) is a Russian political scientist whose views have been described as fascist and who calls to hasten the "end of times" with all out war. He has close ties with the Kremlin and the Russian military, having served as an advisor to State Duma speaker and key member of the ruling United Russia party Sergei Naryshkin. Dugin was the leading organizer of the National Bolshevik Party, National Bolshevik Front, and Eurasia Party. He is the author of more than 30 books, among them Foundations of Geopolitics and The Fourth Political Theory.

He focuses on the restoration of the Russian Empire, through bringing back control over former Soviet republics such as Georgia and Ukraine, and unification with Russian-speaking territories, especially eastern Ukraine and Crimea. In the Kremlin, Dugin represents the "war party", a division in the heart of the leadership concerning Ukraine, and is seen as the driving conceptual force behind Vladimir Putin's initiative for the annexation of Crimea by Russia. In 2014 he expressed the view that the war between Russia and Ukraine "is inevitable" and appealed for Putin to start military intervention in eastern Ukraine.

Believing that the so-called fifth column has been working for two decades to destroy Russia's sovereignty from the inside, he proposed in 2014 to strip all dissidents, including musician Andrei Makarevich, of their Russian citizenship and deport them from the country.

Early life and education
Dugin was born in Moscow, into the family of a colonel-general of the Soviet military intelligence and candidate of law Geliy Alexandrovich Dugin and his wife Galina, a doctor and candidate of medicine. In 1979 he entered the Moscow Aviation Institute, but did not graduate due to his association with thinking contrary to the ongoing regime, which caused him to be expelled from the institute.

A self-taught polyglot, he became an avid reader of a large array of works in his fields of interest, from Middle Age and Renaissance European authors to Oriental Studies, translating to Russian from English, French, and German in some instances, and also writings by Julius Evola and René Guénon. Religious Traditionalism, Conservatism, Hermeticism and Poetry were topics followed closely by Dugin and a group formed with philosophers/thinkers also interested in Traditionalism: Geydar Dzhemal, Evgeniy Golovin, Yuri Mamleev, Vladimir Stepanov, and Sergey Jigalkin.

He graduated in Economics and Management at Novocherkass Meliorative State Academy in the Rostov Oblast in 1999, and defended his post-graduate degree in Philosophy in Rostov-on-Don with the dissertation "The Evolution of Paradigmatic Foundations of Science" in 2000, and the PhD in the Faculty of Sociology in the same University in 2004 with the theme "The Transformation of the Political Structures and Institutions in the Process of Modernization of the Civil Society". In 1998 Dugin, Geydar Dzhemal, and Evgeniy Golovin created a studies center based on their long time shared interests called the New University project.

Dugin was baptized at the age of six in the Russian Orthodox Temple of Michurinsk by his great-grandmother Elena Mikhailovna Kargaltseva. He enthusiastically adheres to the faith of the Russian Old Believers, a traditionalist Christian sect that separated from the canonical Orthodox Church in the mid-17th century.

Early career and political views
Dugin in the 1980s was a dissident and an anti-communist. Dugin worked as a journalist before becoming involved in politics just before the fall of communism. In 1988 he and his friend Geydar Dzhemal joined the nationalist group Pamyat. He helped to write the political program for the newly refounded Communist Party of the Russian Federation under the leadership of Gennady Zyuganov.

In his 1997 article "Fascism – Borderless and Red", Dugin proclaimed the arrival of a "genuine, true, radically revolutionary and consistent, fascist fascism" in Russia. He believes that it was "by no means the racist and chauvinist aspects of National Socialism that determined the nature of its ideology. The excesses of this ideology in Germany are a matter exclusively of the Germans, ... while Russian fascism is a combination of natural national conservatism with a passionate desire for true changes." "Waffen-SS and especially the scientific sector of this organization, Ahnenerbe," was "an intellectual oasis in the framework of the National Socialist regime", according to him."

Dugin soon began publishing his own journal entitled Elementy which initially began by praising Franco-Belgian Jean-François Thiriart, supporter of a Europe "from Dublin to Vladivostok". Consistently glorifying both Tsarist and Stalinist Russia, Elementy also revealed Dugin's admiration for Julius Evola. Dugin also collaborated with the weekly journal Den (The Day), a bastion of Russian anti-Cosmopolitanism previously directed by Alexander Prokhanov.

Dugin was amongst the earliest members of the National Bolshevik Party (NBP) and convinced Eduard Limonov to enter the political arena in 1994. A part of hard-line nationalist NBP members, supported by Dugin, split off to form the more right-wing, anti-liberal, anti-left, anti-Kasparov aggressive nationalist organization, National Bolshevik Front. After breaking with Limonov, he became close to Yevgeny Primakov and later to Vladimir Putin's circle.

Dugin claims to be disapproving of liberalism and the West, particularly American hegemony. His assertions show that he likes Stalin and the Soviet Union: "We are on the side of Stalin and the Soviet Union". He calls himself a conservative and says, "We, conservatives, want a strong, solid State, want order and healthy family, positive values, the reinforcing of the importance of religion and the Church in society". He adds, "We want patriotic radio, TV, patriotic experts, patriotic clubs. We want the media that expresses national interests".

Formation of the Eurasia Movement
The Eurasia Party, later Eurasia Movement, was officially recognized by the Ministry of Justice on 31 May 2001. The Eurasia Party claims support by some military circles and by leaders of the Orthodox Christian faith in Russia, and the party hopes to play a key role in attempts to resolve the Chechen problem, with the objective of setting the stage for Dugin's dream of a Russian strategic alliance with European and Middle Eastern states, primarily Iran. Dugin's ideas, particularly those on "a Turkic-Slavic alliance in the Eurasian sphere" have recently become popular among certain nationalistic circles in Turkey, most notably among alleged members of the Ergenekon network, which is the subject of a high-profile trial (on charges of conspiracy). Dugin's Eurasianist ideology has also been linked to his adherence to the doctrines of the Traditionalist School. (Dugin's Traditionalist beliefs are the subject of a book length study by J. Heiser, The American Empire Should Be Destroyed—Aleksandr Dugin and the Perils of Immanentized Eschatology. ) Dugin also advocates for a Russo-Arab alliance.

In principle, Eurasia and our space, the heartland Russia, remain the staging area of a new anti-bourgeois, anti-American revolution. ... The new Eurasian empire will be constructed on the fundamental principle of the common enemy: the rejection of Atlanticism, strategic control of the USA, and the refusal to allow liberal values to dominate us. This common civilizational impulse will be the basis of a political and strategic union.

The reborn Russia, according to Dugin's concept, is said by Charles Clover of Financial Times to be a slightly remade version of the Soviet Union with echoes of Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, where Eurasia was one of three continent-sized super states including Eastasia and Oceania as the other two and was participating in endless war between them.

He has criticized the "Euro-Atlantic" involvement in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election as a scheme to create a "cordon sanitaire" around Russia, much like the French and British attempt post-World War I.

Dugin has criticized Putin for the "loss" of Ukraine, and accused his Eurasianism of being "empty." In 2005, Dugin founded the Eurasia Youth Union of Russia as the youth wing of the International Eurasia Movement.

Ukraine gave Dugin a five-year entry ban, starting in June 2006, and Kiev declared him a persona non grata in 2007. His Eurasian Youth Union was banned in Ukraine. In 2007, the Security Service of Ukraine identified persons of the Eurasian Youth Union who committed vandalism on Hoverla in 2007: they climbed up the mountain of Hoverla, imitated sawing down the details of the construction in the form of the small coat of arms of Ukraine by tools brought with them and painted the emblem of the Eurasian Youth Union on the memorial symbol of the Constitution of Ukraine. He was deported back to Russia when he arrived at Simferopol International Airport in June 2007.

Before war broke out between Russia and Georgia in 2008, Dugin visited South Ossetia and predicted, "Our troops will occupy the Georgian capital Tbilisi, the entire country, and perhaps even Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula, which is historically part of Russia, anyway." Afterwards he said Russia should "not stop at liberating South Ossetia but should move further," and "we have to do something similar in Ukraine." In 2008, Dugin stated that Russia should repeat the Georgian scenario in Ukraine, namely attack it. In September 2008, after the Russian-Georgian war, he did not hide his anger to Putin, who "dared not drop the other shoe" and "restore the Empire."

Stance on Ukraine and role in Russian politics
Aleksandr Dugin supports Putin and his foreign policies but has opposed Russian governments due to their economic policies. His 2007 quote, "There are no more opponents of Putin's course and, if there are, they are mentally ill and need to be sent off for clinical examination. Putin is everywhere, Putin is everything, Putin is absolute, and Putin is indispensable" - was voted #2 in flattery by readers of Kommersant.

In the Kremlin, Dugin represents the "war party", a division within the leadership over Ukraine. Dugin is seen as an author of Putin's initiative for the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. He considered the war between Russia and Ukraine to be inevitable and appealed for Putin to start military intervention in eastern Ukraine. Dugin said, "The Russian Renaissance can only stop by Kiev." During the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine, Dugin was in regular contact with pro-Russian separatist insurgents. He described his position as "unconditionally pro-DPR and pro-LPR". A Skype video call posted on YouTube showed Dugin providing instructions to separatists of South and Eastern Ukraine as well as advising Ekaterina Gubareva, whose husband Pavel Gubarev declared himself a local governor and after that was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine. On 31 March 2014, Oleg Bahtiyarov, a member of the Eurasia Youth Union of Russia founded by Dugin, was arrested. He had trained a group of about 200 people to seize parliament and another government building, according to the Security Service of Ukraine. Dugin also developed links with far-right and far-left political parties in the European Union, including Syriza in Greece, Ataka in Bulgaria, the Freedom Party of Austria, and Front National in France, to influence EU policy on Ukraine and Russia.

Dugin stated he was disappointed in Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that Putin did not aid the pro-Russian insurgents in Ukraine after the Ukrainian Army's early July 2014 offensive. In August 2014, Dugin called for a "genocide" of Ukrainians.

Halya Coynash of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group said that the influence of Dugin's "Eurasian ideology" on events in eastern Ukraine and on Russia's invasion of the Crimea was beyond any doubt. According to Vincent Jauvert, Dugin's radical ideology today became the basis for the internal and foreign policy of the Russian authorities. So Dugin is worth listening to, in order to understand to which fate the Kremlin is leading its country and the whole of Europe. However, according to Alexander Nevzorov, if we had had Kurginyan and Dugin instead of Putin, there would have been hell for all of us to pay, they would have unleashed a European and World War without a shadow of a doubt, without considering consequences at all. But Dugin and Kurginyan do not have the slightest impact on what is going on in the Kremlin and do not even get coaching there. In another publication, Nevzorov said, "Beliefs are only proven by being under bullets, another prescription does not exist. I do not understand why Milonov and Dugin are not there yet."

On 10 October 2014, Dugin said, "Only after restoring the Greater Russia that is the Eurasian Union, we can become a credible global player. Now these processes slowed down very much. The Ukrainian maidan was the response of the West to the advance of the Russian integration." He described the Euromaidan as a coup d'état carried out not by the Ukrainians but by the United States: "America wishes to wage the war against Russia not by its own hands but by the hands of the Ukrainians. Promising to wink at up to 10 thousand victims among the peaceful population of Ukraine and actually demanding the victims, the United States led to this war. The United States carried out the coup d'état during the maidan for the purpose of this war. The United States raised neo-Nazis Russophobes to the power for the purpose of this war." Dugin said Russia is the major driving force for the current events in Ukraine, "Russia insists on its sovereignty, its liberty, responds to challenges thrown down to it, for example, in Ukraine. Russia is attempting to integrate the post-Soviet space..." As Israeli political scientist Vyacheslav Likhachov states, "If one seriously takes the fact that such a person as Alexander Dugin is the ideologist of the imperial dash for the West, then one can establish that Russia is not going to stop as far as the Atlantic Ocean."

In the 2014 article by Dmitry Bykov "Why TV, Alexander Dugin and Galina Pyshnyak crucified a boy", Channel One Russia's use of the aired story by Dugin and Pyshnyak about the allegedly crucified boy as a pretext for escalating the conflict was compared to the case of Beilis. On 9 July 2014, Dugin on his account of Facebook wrote a story that a 6 years-old child was allegedly nailed down to an advertisement board and shot to death before his father's eyes. On 16 July 2014, Novaya Gazeta provided the videotaped evidence that its correspondent Eugen Feldman walked along the main square in Sloviansk, trying to find out from local old women if they had heard of the murder of the child. They said such an event did not take place. The website change.org hosted the petition of citizens who demanded "a comprehensive investigation with identification for all persons involved in the fabrication of the plot."

On 2 October 2014, Dugin described the situation in Donbass: "The humanitarian crisis has long since been raging on the territory of Novorossiya. Already up to a million, if not more, refugees are in the Russian Federation. A large part of the inhabitants of the DPR and the LPR simply moved abroad." In the end of October 2014, Dugin advised the separatists to establish dictatorship in Novorossiya until they win in the confrontation.

Rhetoric about the fifth column
The typical rhetoric about the fifth column as foreign agents is permeated with hatred for them and used by Dugin for political accusations in many publications. For instance, in his 2014 interview published by Vzglyad and Komsomolskaya Pravda, he says, "A huge struggle is being conducted. And, of course, Europe has its own fifth column, its own Bolotnaya Square-minded people. And if we have them sitting idly and doing nasty things on Dozhd, Europe is indeed dominated and ruled by the fifth column in full swing. This is the same American riffraff..." He always sees the United States standing behind all the scenes and behind the Russian fifth column hired by the United States, according to his statement, "The danger of our fifth column is not that they are strong, they are absolutely paltry, but that they are hired by the greatest 'godfather' of the modern world—by the United States. That is why they are effective, they work, they are listened to, they get away with anything because they have the world power standing behind them." He sees the American embassy as the center for funding and guiding the fifth column and asserts, "We know that the fifth column receives money and instructions from the American embassy."

According to Dugin, the fifth column promoted the breakup of the Soviet Union as a land continental construction, seized the power under Boris Yeltsin, and headed Russia as the ruling politico-economic and cultural elite until the 2000s; the fifth column is the regime of liberal reformers of the 1990s and includes former Russian oligarchs Vladimir Gusinsky, Boris Berezovsky, former government officials Mikhail Kasyanov, Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Ryzhkov, artistic, cultural, media workers, the Echo of Moscow, the Russian State University for the Humanities, the highest ranks of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, a significant part of teachers of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, a minority part of teachers of the Moscow State University. Dugin proposes to deprive the fifth column of Russian citizenship and deport the group from Russia: "I believe it is necessary to deport the fifth column and deprive them of their citizenship." However, in 2007, Dugin argued, "There are no longer opponents of Putin's policy, and if there are, they are mentally ill and should be sent to prophylactic health examination." In 2014, Dugin in an interview to Der Spiegel confirmed that he considers the opponents of Putin to be mentally ill.

In one of his publications, Dugin introduced the term the sixth column and defined it as "the fifth column which just pretends to be something different;" those who are in favor of Putin, but demand him to stand for liberal values (as opposed to the fifth column, who is definitely against Putin). During the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine, Dugin said that all the Russian sixth column stood up staunchly for Rinat Akhmetov. As he asserts, "We need to struggle against the fifth and sixth columns."

Russian-American artist Mihail Chemiakin says, Dugin is already inventing "the sixth column". "Soon, probably, there would already be the seventh one as well. "The fifth column" is understandable. That is we, intelligentsia, lousy, dirty, who read Camus. And "the sixth column", in his opinion, is more dangerous, because that is the personal entourage of Vladimir Putin. But he is naive and understands nothing. And as for Dugin, he can tell him who to shoot to death and who to imprison. Maybe, Kudrin and maybe, Medvedev... "

According to Dugin, the whole Internet should be banned: "I think that Internet as such, as a phenomenon is worth prohibiting because it gives nobody anything good." In June 2012, Dugin said in a lecture that chemistry and physics are demonic sciences, and that all Orthodox Russians need to unite around the President of the Russian Federation in the last battle between good and evil, following the example of Iran and North Korea. He added, "If we want to liberate ourselves from the West, it is needed to liberate ourselves from textbooks on physics and chemistry."

Dugin has characterized his position on the Ukrainian conflict as "firm opposition to the Junta and Ukrainian Nazism that are annihilating peaceful civilians" as well as unacceptance of liberalism and American hegemony.

Sanctions
On 11 March 2015, the United States Department of the Treasury added Dugin, as well as his Eurasian Youth Union, to its list of Russian citizens who are sanctioned as a result of their involvement in the Ukrainian crisis. In June 2015, Canada added Dugin to its list of sanctioned individuals.

Trump endorsement
In February 2016 Dugin endorsed the candidacy of Donald Trump for president of the United States.

Dugin's works
Several of Dugin's books have been published by the publishing house Arktos, an important English-language publisher for Traditionalist and New Right books. which specializes in works by prominent fascists and neo-Nazis.
 * "Konflikte der Zukunft - Die Rückkehr der Geopolitik", Bonus (2015)
 * Last War of the World-Island: The Geopolitics of Contemporary Russia, Arktos (2015)
 * Eurasian Mission: An Introduction to Neo-Eurasianism, Arktos (2014)
 * Martin Heidegger: The Philosophy of Another Beginning, Washington Summit (2014)
 * Putin vs Putin, Arktos (2014)
 * Noomahia: voiny uma. Tri Logosa: Apollon, Dionis, Kibela, Akademicheskii proekt (2014)
 * V poiskah tiomnogo Logosa, Akademicheskii proekt (2013)
 * The Fourth Political Theory, Arktos (2012)
 * Die Vierte Politische Theorie, Arktos (2013)
 * The United States and the New World Order (debate with Olavo de Carvalho), VIDE Editorial (2012)
 * Pop-kultura i znaki vremeni, Amphora (2005)
 * Filosofiya voiny, Yauza (2004)
 * Absoliutnaia rodina, Arktogeia-tsentr (1999)
 * Tampliery proletariata: natsional-bol'shevizm i initsiatsiia, Arktogeia (1997)
 * Osnovy geopolitiki: geopoliticheskoe budushchee Rossii, Arktogeia (1997)
 * Metafizika blagoi vesti: Pravoslavnyi ezoterizm, Arktogeia (1996)
 * Misterii Evrazii, Arktogeia (1996)
 * Konservativnaia revoliutsiia, Arktogeia (1994)
 * Conspirology

Use
The book was co-authored by General Nikolai Klokotov of the General Staff Academy. Colonel General Leonid Ivashov, head of the International Department of the Russian Ministry of Defence, apparently advised in the project. Klokotov stated that in the future the book would "serve as a mighty ideological foundation for preparing a new military command."

Dugin has asserted that the book has been adopted as a textbook in many Russian educational institutions.

Content
The book declares that "the battle for the world rule of [ethnic] Russians" has not ended and Russia remains "the staging area of a new anti-bourgeois, anti-American revolution." The Eurasian Empire will be constructed "on the fundamental principle of the common enemy: the rejection of Atlanticism, strategic control of the USA, and the refusal to allow liberal values to dominate us."

Military operations play relatively little role. The textbook believes in a sophisticated program of subversion, destabilization, and disinformation spearheaded by the Russian special services. The operations should be assisted by a tough, hard-headed utilization of Russia's gas, oil, and natural resources to bully and pressure other countries.

The book states that "the maximum task [of the future] is the 'Finlandization' of all of Europe".

In Europe:
 * Germany should be offered the de facto political dominance over most Protestant and Catholic states located within Central and Eastern Europe. Kaliningrad oblast could be given back to Germany. The book uses the term a "Moscow-Berlin axis".
 * France should be encouraged to form a "Franco-German bloc" with Germany. Both countries have a "firm anti-Atlanticist tradition".
 * United Kingdom should be cut off from Europe.
 * Finland should be absorbed into Russia. Southern Finland will be combined with the Republic of Karelia and northern Finland will be "donated to Murmansk Oblast".
 * Estonia should be given to Germany's sphere of influence.
 * Latvia and Lithuania should be given a "special status" in the Eurasian-Russian sphere.
 * Poland should be granted a "special status" in the Eurasian sphere.
 * Romania, Macedonia, "Serbian Bosnia" and Greece      – "orthodox collectivist East" – will unite with the "Moscow the Third Rome" and reject the "rational-individualistic West".
 * Ukraine should be annexed by Russia because "“Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning, no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness, its certain territorial ambitions represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics". Ukraine should not be allowed to remain independent, unless it is cordon sanitaire, which would be inadmissible.

In the Middle East and Central Asia:
 * The book stresses the "continental Russian-Islamic alliance" which lies "at the foundation of anti-Atlanticist strategy". The alliance is based on the "traditional character of Russian and Islamic civilization".
 * Iran is a key ally. The book uses the term "Moscow-Tehran axis".
 * Armenia has a special role and will serve as a "strategic base" and it is necessary to create "the [subsidiary] axis Moscow-Erevan-Teheran". Armenians "are an Aryan people … [like] the Iranians and the Kurds".
 * Azerbaijan could be "split up" or given to Iran.
 * Georgia should be dismembered. Abkhazia and "United Ossetia" (which includes Georgia's South Ossetia) will be incorporated into Russia. Georgia's independent policies are unacceptable.
 * Russia needs to create "geopolitical shocks" within Turkey. These can be achieved by employing Kurds, Armenians and other minorities.
 * The book regards the Caucasus as a Russian territory, including "the eastern and northern shores of the Caspian (the territories of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan)" and Central Asia (mentioning Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirghistan and Tajikistan).

In Asia:
 * China, which represents a danger to Russia, "must, to the maximum degree possible, be dismantled". Dugin suggests that Russia start by taking Tibet-Xinjiang-Mongolia-Manchuria as a security belt. Russia should offer China help "in a southern direction – Indochina (except Vietnam), the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia" as geopolitical compensatation.
 * Russia should manipulate Japanese politics by offering the Kuril Islands to Japan and provoking anti-Americanism.
 * Mongolia should be absorbed into Eurasia-Russia.

The book emphasizes that Russia must spread Anti-Americanism everywhere: "the main 'scapegoat' will be precisely the U.S."

In the United States:
 * Russia should use its special forces within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism. For instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics."

The Eurasian Project could be expanded to South and Central America.

Reviews
Hoover Institution senior fellow John B. Dunlop stated that "the impact of this intended 'Eurasianist' textbook on key Russian elites testifies to the worrisome rise of fascist ideas and sentiments during the late Yeltsin and the Putin period."

An essay in The New York Review of Books said that Foundations of Geopolitics is influenced by the work of Carl Schmitt, a proponent of a conservative international order whose work influenced the Nazis.