Europe’s tacit consent to promotion of pseudo-Russian war philosophy threatens peace across continent

The risks of a war erupting between Russia and the West, as described by Germany’s BILD, are increasing against the backdrop of Western Europe’s tacit consent to popularization of the ideas of Russian “soft power” and support for psyops run by Russian ideologists who promote war and disintegration of Europe. Recently, local authorities in Italy issued permits for holding a number of events involving Russia’s infamous neo-Nazi Alexander Dugin, who, posing as a philosopher, has been building up the ideological framework of the Putin regime.

The existing loyalty to Dugin in certain localities in Italy can be explained by the simple fact that in his basic narratives he is close to the ideas of Julius Evola, an Italian philosopher and the leading thinker among Europe’s neo-fascist movements. His thought draws on several schools and traditions, including German idealism, Eastern doctrines, traditionalism, and the all-embracing Weltanschauung of the German Conservative Revolution. Dugin is closer to Evola, who developed a politicized vision of Traditionalism, and does not hesitate to affirm a sacrificial conception of politics: “We need a new party. A party of death. A party of the total vertical. God’s party, the Russian analogue to the Hezbollah, that would act according to wholly different rules and contemplate completely different pictures. For the System, death is truly the end. For a normal person, it is only a beginning.” These ideas are reflected in some of President Putin’s statements about nuclear war, as well as in propaganda campaigns such as the “Immortal Regiment” reflecting on the WW2 victory heritage.

However, Dugin is never a simple sentimental “reproducer.” He hopes to “Russify” the doctrines that inspire him, and to adapt them to what he calls the traditional concepts of the Russian world. 

It is through Alexander Dugin that Moscow seeks to promote in Europe a policy of Euroscepticism and secession from NATO. The runup to propaganda events follows a standard pattern: advertising in local media, engagement with municipal authorities (including through certain financing), and involvement of the local Russian diaspora and pro-Russian forces to create the illusion of mass support for the event.

Dugin is considered to be a key link—a lynchpin even—between the Russian state establishment and far-right European movements—as well as the rising populist parties across Europe and indeed beyond. Although Dugin’s denies any association with fascism or far-right nationalism, he acknowledges that he sees in populist movements like Lega and the Five Star Movement the realization of his political program. The current Italian government, he says, is the first concrete expression of his so-called Fourth Political Theory.

In his view, the three leading ideologies of the 20th century—fascism, communism and liberalism—are defunct, and must make way for a new ideological formation; hence, the “fourth” theory. “The three ideologies are a product of the West and of the modern world,” he explains. “I want to rediscover those premodern values that were shared by the great Eastern and Western civilizations of the past.” This vision contradicts the Western values of liberal democracy, free trade, individualism, gender equality and human rights. “The West promotes a globalist ideology that denies the existence of different cultures and traditions. According to the Fourth Political Theory, there is not just one, global, “human” civilization, but many different civilizations, each the product of its own unique historical, social, cultural and political development.” This is similar to the racist ideology of Adolf Hitler. Dugin’s texts abound in references to Aryanism and Neo-paganism, a classic corollary of the racial ideology and the idea of the original superiority of the Whites. Dugin’s ideas share many features of this original fascism, as he is expecting a cultural revolution aiming to create a “New Man”.

Despite this, Dugin himself also borrowed some leftist ideas, for example in the field of economics. So Dugin’s ideas do not represent a philosophical concept, rather some opportunistically fabricated foundations of a chauvinist, neo-imperial anti-Western policy, developed in line with the tasks pursued by Russian intelligence (after the collapse of the ideas of communism), including to run malign influence operations and shape public opinion abroad. His “offer” satisfies Putin’s demand for expanding confrontation with the West, fits the trend toward the development of jingoistic forces in Russia and revisiting the Cold War with the resuscitation of the Soviet Union. Italy is now the main target of Dugin’s propaganda blow.

 “Italy is today the geopolitical avant-garde of the Fourth Political Theory,” Dugin explains. “The union between Lega and the Five Star Movement is the first historical step towards the irreversible affirmation of populism and the transition to a multipolar world.” For this reason, he says, the current Italian government is a natural partner to the Kremlin. In his eyes, other interesting examples of populism are the conservative German party, Alternative für Deutschland, Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Melenchon in France, and—to some extent—Donald Trump. It is clear that Dugin is trying to create a bridge between Russia and American populism, especially with Trump’s former advisor Steve Bannon. This model allows for a better understanding of the Kremlin’s policy of bidding on the said political forces in Europe, which, Russians believe, should undermine the EU and NATO from within, leading to their eventual collapse, as well as get rid of any US influence over the European continent, replacing it with full control on the part of Russia.

Dugin is an ideologist of Eurasionism, a far-right concept of Moscow’s empire as a separate civilization that stems from Scythians, Turks, and Mongols.

According to him, Russia is a distinct space, carved and hemmed between Europe and Asia, a gigantic cultural basin gathering millions in a unified identity across the former Soviet empire. Russia’s mission is allegedly to transform this imagined community of disparate ethnicities to an attempted reality of Greater Russia. Contrary to what many think, Dugin has very limited influence inside Putin’s court.

Dugin is actively exploited by security elites, in particular military intelligence (his father was a GRU operative), as part of their malign influence operations and psyops in Kremlin’s interest. His task is clear: to form certain public opinions, mobilize ultra-right forces abroad, set up international connections with radical political forces in order to bring them to power and impose Russian policies onto Europe. Moscow is currently using Dugin to bring to a halt all Western support for Ukraine and strengthen anti-American sentiment across the EU. We are convinced that his future rhetoric will shape a negative attitude towards the Baltic States and Poland, pushing general public to accept the idea that it would be better to have them back under Moscow’s control. According to Dugin, the Russian nation needs to be prepared for “defending its national truth, not only against its enemies, but also against its allies. He bases his ideology on conspiracy theories, presenting the new world order as a “spider web” in which globalized actors hide in order to better accomplish their mission.The Neo-Eurasianist currents that emerged in the 1990s share an imperial conception of Russia, but they are all based on different pre-suppositions. Aleksandr Dugin occupies a particular position inside this group, and is sometimes criticized virulently by the other Neo- Eurasianists. Indeed, Dugin “distorts” the idea of Eurasia by combining it with elements borrowed from other intellectual traditions, such as theories of conservative revolution, the German geopolitics of the 1920s and 1930s. The policy of anti-globalism sees active support from Russia’s military intelligence, which supervises separatist movements in various regions across the world.