These days, one of the most talked-about guests on MAGA podcasts is a bearded philosopher from Moscow who contends that Russian servicemen ought to
march across Ukraine
and eradicate what he refers to as the nation’s “Nazi government.”
Alexander Dugin has long been an influential figure in Russian far-right politics. For many years, he advocated for Moscow to abandon Western-style liberal democracy and reclaim its former imperial status. Eventually, these ideas were adopted by Vladimir Putin as well. He is sometimes referred to as “Putin’s brain” by some commentators; however, Dugin dismisses this title and insists that his impact on President Putin is overstated.
Currently, Dugin is attempting to align himself with the supporters of President Trump. In the last twelve months, he has granted interviews to prominent pro-Trump figures like Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones. During these appearances on their programs, he has criticized “woke ideology,” transgender activism, and George Soros, earning approval from his interviewers.
Dugin’s efforts to connect with MAGA are happening during a critical juncture in U.S.-Russia relations. Trump aims to bring an end to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
rekindle relations with Putin
, who became an international pariah after his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Trump’s efforts have unsettled European leaders and Democratic politicians, who regard Putin as a dictator with the blood of thousands of Ukrainians on his hands.
As Trump and Putin bring their nations nearer within the sphere of geopolitical affairs, Dugin aims to achieve something similar at a cultural level. However, it is yet unclear if he will manage to connect U.S. conservatives with Russians supporting Putin’s military actions in Ukraine.
“I am interested in Trump and Trumpism,” Dugin told The Wall Street Journal in written remarks relayed through a spokeswoman. “And Trumpists themselves are probably interested, in turn, in my ideas, theories and philosophical-ideological explorations.”
Critics of Dugin—from Russian and Western liberals to Ukrainian officials—accuse him of fueling a genocidal conflict in Ukraine. They condemn US media personalities for providing him with a stage to address Americans.
“Andreas Umland, a researcher with the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies, referred to him as ‘nothing more than a Russian fascist.’ He further emphasized his extremist views, describing them as dangerously poisonous,” he stated.
In August 2022, Dugin’s daughter, Daria Dugina, died when a bomb exploded near her vehicle following an event she had attended alongside her father in the vicinity of Moscow. The Russians accused Ukraine of being responsible for this incident; however, certain news outlets speculated that the intended target might have been Dugin instead.
U.S. intelligence organizations determined that
Ukraine was behind the operation
that killed Dugina, which was carried out without Washington’s knowledge and prompted a U.S. rebuke of Kyiv, the Journal has reported. Ukrainian officials have denied responsibility.
Dugina adopted her father’s militant political stance and often appeared as a commentator on Russian state television prior to her death. Following her assassination, Dugin has portrayed his deceased daughter as a martyr, prominently displaying a big black-and-white photograph of her in recent interview settings.
The 63-year-old Dugin has long promoted Orthodox Christian traditionalism and the reunification of former Soviet republics with large ethnic-Russian populations. He sees Trump as helping Russia regain its sphere of influence by having the U.S. retreat from its role as a global superpower.
In his latest book titled “The Trump Revolution,” Dugin praises
the president’s dismantling
According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the book can be described as “a missile strike on the headquarters of globalization.” Published in February, the work is offered in English by a small European publishing house known for distributing Dugin’s writings.
Last year, Dugin began gaining traction among a wider U.S. audience when he was interviewed by Carlson, who previously hosted shows on Fox News and has millions of subscribers across platforms like YouTube and X. The recording of their meeting in Moscow was released following Carlson’s contentious discussions.
interview with Putin
at the Kremlin.
Speaking in fluent but accented English, Dugin responded to Carlson’s opening question with a five-minute lecture that ranged from the Protestant Reformation to artificial intelligence to the LGBTQ movement. “Finally, family is destroyed in favor of individualism,” Dugin said.
“What you’re describing is clearly happening and it’s horrifying,” Carlson replied.
During the past two months, Dugin has sat for lengthy interviews with Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who hosts a show on Rumble, a video-streaming site popular with conservatives; podcaster Andrew Napolitano, a former Fox News legal analyst; and Mario Nawfal, host of a popular show on X.
Dugin’s father was a Soviet military-intelligence officer, but in his youth Dugin became involved with dissident circles and dabbled in underground rock music. After the collapse of the U.S.S.R., he became a fierce opponent of the pro-U.S. government of Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first post-Soviet president. Dugin published dozens of books and founded the Eurasia Party, a fringe group that advocates for the unification of former Soviet republics, as well as Serbia and Mongolia.
Although Dugin has called homosexuality a “perversion,” his first wife became one of Russia’s earliest LGBTQ activists and helped organize an unsanctioned Moscow gay-pride parade in 2006.
In 2014, after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and began to foment armed clashes in eastern Ukraine, Dugin demanded the annihilation of Kyiv’s pro-Western leaders and their supporters. “Kill, kill and kill. There should be no more discussions,” he said during a video interview with a Russian online news service. The remarks sparked a furor that resulted in Dugin’s removal from his post at Moscow State University.
Dugin is currently advocating a milder form of these concepts through American right-wing media platforms. In February, when appearing on Alex Jones’ conspiracy-oriented site, Infowars, he accused “globalists” of causing discord between Russia and Ukraine.
“Ukrainians and we Russians, we are one people. We belong to the same Russian sphere, but they have divided us [into two],” he stated.
Jones seemed open to the idea. “Neither Napoleon nor Hitler were able to conquer Russia, and neither could the Huns or anyone else… What a brilliant strategy for having Russians fight each other!” the InfoWars host commented.
“Exactly,” Dugin replied.
Send your letter to Alexander Osipovich.
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