SUNDAY 21 AUGUST 2022

An explosion in an elite suburb of Moscow killed the daughter of an important Kremlin ideologue.  Alexander Dugin, an ultranationalist Russian propagandist, flirted with the politics of Nazi Germany.

Dugin painted a picture of Russia fighting an “individualistic, materialistic west.”  I cannot, however, understand how much more materialistic the Russian elite can be.  I see no indication that there is a struggle going on against materialism among the Kremlin elite.

Dugin, according to the Guardian, formed a National Bolshevik party with a novelist “merging fascist and communist-nostalgic rhetoric and symbolism.” 

After 1991, he became a prominent pillar of the conservative establishment.  He wrote a much used book which called on Russia to “rebuild its influence through annexations and alliances while proclaiming his opposition to Ukraine as a sovereign state.”

Dugin framed Ukrains as an “enormous danger” for all of Eurasia.  “…without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics.”  Dugin wrote.

Putin quoted some of Dugin’s views in his 4,000 word essay “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukranians” which many see as his blueprint for the invasion of Ukraine.  The invasion came just six months after this absurd and virtually unreadable essay was published. 

After mass anti-government protests in 2012 Putin took power once again and he embraced a conservative vision for Russia.  It was then that Dugin’s ideas gained more currency inside the Kremlin.

Dugin was a supporter of the annexation of Crimea and a bloody war in Donbas.

“I think we should kill, kill, kill (Ukrainians), there can’t be any other talk,” Dugin said in a video. 

One of the most hated men in Ukraine, Dugin did not travel with heavy security and some think he was the target of Saturday’s attack. 

Dugin’s influence on Putin has been much debated.  An ally of Alexei Navalny wrote about Dugin” “This caricature pseudo-intellectual foist is certainly not part of the decision-making system.”  This was written hours after the bombing.

The Guardian: “his brand of Russian nationalism has indisputably become popular among much of Russia’s political elite, and his views helped shape the ideas behind the invasion of Ukraine.”

Dugin’s daughter, 30-year-old Darya, was not an innocent bystander.  She was a “pro-Kremlin journalist ideologically aligned with her father.” 

Ukraine has denied any involvement in the car bombing.  Ukrainian independence day is 24 August and Ukraine is bracing itself for reprisals.  Ukrainian military warned that Russia had “put five cruise missile-bearing warships and submarines out in the Black Sea and…Moscow was positioning air defense systems in Belarus.”

Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of Russia’s Duma, now lives in Kyiv.  He was expelled from Russia for anti-Kremlin activities while he was in the United States and preventing from returning.  He established an anti-Russian newspaper in Kyiv.

He has claimed that the explosion that killed Darya Dugin’s death was the work of the National Republican Army, an underground group working inside Russia to overthrow Putin.

Prominent Russian hawks called for Russia to attack Ukrainian officials. 

Darya Dugin and her father were scheduled to leave an event together, but left in separate cars.  Darya Dugin left in her father’s car.  Dugin has been described as a “Russian fascist,” and his daughter had similar views. 

The independent Russian news agency, Agentstvo, has reported that the car was registered in the daughter’s name. 

Dugin has been described as the “spiritual guide” to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  Both Dugin and his daughter has been sanctioned by the United States. 

Cnn (8/21/22)

The US Treasury has said that Dugin was a leader of the Eurasian Youth Union, which recruited those with military and combat experience to fight in Donbas. 

In an interview with CNN in 2017, Dugin remarked on the many similarities between his own views and those of Donald Trump.  He characterized Trump’s inauguration speech “as if I would write it myself.”

Dugin also said that Putin had provided inspiration for Trump.

BBC

While Dugin is not a state official, he is “a symbolic figure in Russian politics.”

Names:

Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry.

Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief for the state-funded RT television station.

Mykhailo Podolyak, spokesman for Zelensky

Keir Giles, a Russia expert at the Chatham House thinktank.

Agentstvo, independent Russian news agency.

Sources:

• The Guardian 8/21/22
• Luke Harding.