For one thing, much as the word “fascist” gets frivolously thrown around, Dugin is actually a onetime self-proclaimed fascist, albeit of the “real fascism has never been tried” variety. But his influence on the Putin-era ruling class in Russia is unquestionably real and scary. The 60-year-old Dugin may or may not be Putin’s whisperer there is no evidence that the two men have actually met. Both the war in Ukraine and the new Cold War against the West can be said to represent the triumph-or the debacle-of Dugin’s vision. And indeed, in many ways this is Dugin’s moment: For more than a quarter century, he has been talking about an eternal civilizational war between Russia and the West and about Russia’s destiny to build a vast Eurasian empire, beginning with a reconquista of Ukraine. The madness of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has once again turned the spotlight on the creepy, enigmatic guru who has been called “ Putin’s brain” or, irresistibly, “ Putin’s Rasputin”: maverick “political philosopher” Aleksandr Dugin.
