Aleksandr Dugin: ‘I see no reason why we should not use nuclear weapons’

Is the invasion of Ukraine a holy war? If that is how Vladimir Putin sees it, it might have something to do with the ideas of Aleksandr Dugin, a former anti-communist who is touted by some to be the Russian President’s favourite philosopher. He is described as a Rasputin-style mystic, a comparison which is aided by his thick beard.

For him, Ukraine is a proxy war against the ‘satanism’ of the West. While the level of his influence on Putin is disputed, there is no question that this unapologetic supporter of the Ukrainian invasion has had a major impact in Russian intellectual and political circles and has gained a growing audience in China, the Middle East, Latin America and the developing world.

I spoke to Dugin towards the end of last year, shortly after the first anniversary of the assassination of his 29-year-old daughter Darya, who was killed in a car bomb outside Moscow. While nothing has been proven, Ukrainian elements have been suspected, by western intelligence as well as by Russia. Darya had herself made enemies – she ran a website regarded in the West as spreading propaganda on behalf of the Wagner Group – but many believe that Dugin himself may have been the intended target. He is thought to have changed cars at the last minute.

‘I don’t consider Ukraine to be just a regional disagreement. It is a major event, perhaps the biggest in history’

‘It’s personal,’ Dugin tells me. ‘They have killed not only her. They have killed me and my wife. Everything stopped on 20 August 2022. It was a success for Satan and his slaves. And maybe they killed me much more than they could because they killed me a hundred times. So they have achieved their goal. Martyrdom for her and for myself and for my wife, for her mother.