What is it about Russian despots and the madmen some of them rely on? There was Rasputin, the mad monk who proved so difficult to kill, upon whom the Tsarina Alexandra came to rely. There was Joseph Stalin, who needed no other madman, for he was his own madman, indeed a full- blown homicidal maniac. And now there is Alexander Dugin, who has found favor with Vladimir Putin, offering a moral defense for the resurrection of a Russian Empire that would include all the former republics on the Soviet Union, buttressed by a theory he calls “Eurasianism,” a term he borrowed, and misapplied, from the early 19th century Russian thinker Pyotr Chaadayev. Elder of Ziyon gave us more information on Dugin a couple of months ago; with Putin in the news again after his summit with Trump, Elder of Ziyon’s post is worth revisiting: “‘Putin’s philosopher’ is an antisemite who thinks Israel will blow up Al Aqsa and blame Iran,” Elder of Ziyon, June 23, 2025:
Aleksandr Dugin, the Russian ultranationalist often dubbed “Putin’s philosopher,” is not just a dangerous ideologue. He is also a conspiracy-minded antisemite obsessed with Israel, and his ravings reflect a recurring truth: that Jews and the Jewish state are seen as existential threats to totalitarian ideologies – precisely because Jewish values stand in moral opposition to them.
The New York Times introduced its readers to Dugin in 2022, describing him as “Putin’s philosopher” who has been a leading advocate for conquest of Ukraine.
His thinking builds on ideas of “Eurasianism,” that Russia is a distinct civilization that should forge a continent-spanning state along the lines of its former empire but without the Communist ideology of the Soviet Union. Jane Burbank, an emeritus history professor at New York University, has written that in Mr. Dugin’s view, after the Soviet Union’s “sellout” to the West in the 1990s, “Russia could revive in the next phase of global combat and become a ‘world empire.’”
What Dugin considers to be the Soviet Union’s “sellout” to the West was simply the work of Gorbachev and then Yeltsin, in putting an end to Communist despotism, and giving the Soviet republics their independence, thereby greatly reducing the size, population, and resources of the successor state to the Soviet Union — the Russian Federation.
It turns out that “Putin’s philosopher” is an antisemite who seems obsessed with the idea that Israel is run by crazed messianic Jews who are hellbent on creating a Greater Israel.
Are Prime Minister Netanyahu, or President Isaac Herzog, or Foreign Secretary Gideon Sa’ar, or Defense Secretary Israel Katz, “crazed messianic Jews”? And as for that “Greater Israel” Dugin claims Israelis are determined to create, does he really believe that they want an Israel “from the Nile to the Euphrates”? If they do, then why did Israel hand back the entire Sinai to Egypt as part of the Camp David Accords in 1979? The only territory that Israel won in the Six-Day War that it is likely to insist on retaining (aside from the Golan Heights) is Judea and Samaria, which is where Jews have lived continuously for 3500 years, where so much of Jewish history was made, and where continued Israeli control is necessary for the Jewish state’s defense against possible invaders from the east. And remember, Judea and Samaria (which Jordan renamed in 1950 as the “West Bank”) were always intended by the League of Nations to be included in the territory of Mandatory Palestine — that is, the territory that would eventually become the Jewish state of Israel. None of that history means anything to Alexander Dugin.
In a recent podcast, he said, “Half of Israel is pure liberal trash. The other half are cheerful Zionists who want to blow up Al-Aqsa.”
His insistence that Israel will blow up Al Aqsa is a recurrent theme in his writings – see, for example, this article from December where he is certain that Ben Gvir will blow up the mosque to create a Greater Israel….
These are a madman’s ravings. Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s Minister of Security, wants to establish the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount — and surely it is long past time for Jews to enjoy the same right to pray on the Temple Mount, the most sacred spot in Judaism, as the Muslims have. But Ben Gvir but has never expressed a desire to “blow up” Al-Aqsa. He knows perfectly well that such an explosion would lead to anti-Israel hysteria among 1.5 billion Muslims that nothing could quell; the Jewish state’s very existence would be imperiled as never before.
Given that Dugin believes that the Russian Federation’s destiny is to become a holy empire along tsarist lines, he views Jews and Israel as implacable obstacles to the fulfillment of his dream….
Will this Russian Federation be able to reconquer and incorporate into a resurrected Holy Russia all the former territories of the Soviet Union? That attempt has started with Ukraine, but after three years, tens of billions of dollars spent on weapons, and one million Russian dead and wounded, Ukraine is still standing and still holding onto 80% of its prewar territory. And by what tortured logic does Dugin blame “the Jews” and Israel as obstacles to this geopolitical dream of a revived Russia ruling over all the former Soviet republics?
It used to be said, a quarter-century ago, when Putin first took power, that he was that remarkable thing, a Russian despot who was not an antisemite. It turned out that as a boy, he had lived in a communal apartment, where a family of Orthodox Jews also lived. They took the young Putin under their wing. Their solicitude, it was said, saved the young boy from becoming a “hooligan.” He has visited Israel three times, and each time he has gone, a yarmulke on his head, to the Western Wall. During his last visit, he commented on the deep Jewish connection to the holy site: “You can see how the Jewish past is engraved in the stones of Jerusalem.” He also sought out, and located, a Jewish lady, Mina Yuditskaya Berliner, who had been his beloved high school teacher of German. He showered her with gifts, and arranged for one of his friends, the oligarch Roman Abramovich, to buy her an apartment in Tel Aviv.
Now Putin has become much less favorable to Israel. He has formed a military alliance with Iran, receiving weapons from Tehran, including drones, to use against Ukraine, and diplomatically, he has taken Iran’s side at the UN. No doubt part of this change in Putin’s thinking can be attributed to the influence of Alexander Dugin. He’s not himself an antisemite, but Putin has been willing to give the antisemitic theorist a respectful hearing. For Israel, this is worrisome news. And there is no Prince Yusupoff on the horizon to rid both Putin, and Russia, of this dangerous man.
Luchtpint says
A tin (full) of Poo = Poo-tin !
And the vast majority of Russians are antisemites by default. No surprise to me.
marc says
I have been following Dugin and his acolytes skulduggery for about 5 years, and attribute much of the ongoing psyops, mostly on social media, to him.
gravenimage says
Thanks for that background, Marc.
Billy says
Deceitful Totalitarians partner with totalitarian Islam and its terroristic Muslims against all Non-Muslims to help gain ultimate power and control. Totalitarian admire one another.
ISLAM IS AHISTORICAL, FALLACIOUS, DECEITFUL, AND POLITICAL to conquer and to subjugate Non-Muslims(Quran 3:54; 7:99; 8:30, etc.). There is NO MECCA, NO MUHAMMAD, and NO QURAN in the 7th century AD in Saudi Arabia despite the Muslim Standard Islamic Narrative(SIN) claims. Thus, Islam is a factitious ideology imaginatively fabricated over time into the 21sth century, and there is NO PEACE with Islam and its Muslims(Quran 8:39: 9:5, 29, 111, etc.). Allah’s cursed Islam, a CRIMINAL-TERRORIST ENTERPRISE and a MURDEROUS-DEMONIC CULT OF BELIEVERS, Terrorist Muslim Soldiers for Allah, continually fund, promote, and practice ideological subversion, propaganda, bigotry, discrimination, deceit, mass murder, intimidation, supremacy, segregation, hatred, incitement to violence, criminality, genocide, victimhood, censorship, and terrorism as taught in Islamic Law, Sharia, and in Islam’s Quran(Quran 5:14,35; 8:60; 9:41, 88, etc.).
Allah’s specious ideology in Qur’an 8:39 commands Muslims to fight Non-Muslims until they surrender to Muslim rule when it says, “And engage in war with them[Non-Muslims] until there will not be sedition and the religion will be completely to Allah…” Muslims are encouraged to conquer and subjugate every territory for Islam. Hence, Muslim actions should be legally challenged with a multi-faceted force of Western Laws like Muslims wield against Westerners via Tax Exempt Organizations, the Media and Hollywood, Foreign Funding, etc. because Islam violates and is incompatible with Western Laws(Quran 8:60; 9:5,29, 111; 47:4; 49:15; 60:4 etc.).
Like a Foreign Terrorist Organization(FTO) designated by the USA Secretary of State, Islam and its Muslims function as a MUSLIM TERRORIST ORGANIZATION(MTO) fighting against Non-Muslims to make Islam supreme and NOT A PEACEFUL religion under Western Law because Islam funds, teaches, and promotes Terrorist Criminal Organizations with Muslims as Terrorists for Allah(Quran 2:191; 4:89, 91; 9:5,29, 111; 49:15, etc.).
Allah’s Islam, a supremacist Antichrist Ideology, is using Western Freedoms and Laws against Non-Muslims to conquer Non-Muslims under Islamic Rule. Non-Muslims should legally designate Islam as a Muslim Terrorist Organization(MTO) where Mosques, Muslim Schools, Islamic Centers, Sharia Courts, and Muslim Organizations are banned because of their incitement of segregation and discrimination to fight back against ISLAMIZATION, Muslim subjugation, and tyrannical violence(Quran 4:65; 9:5,29,111; 60:4; 98:6-7, etc.).
Allah’s Muslims desire to make Islam supreme. Sahih Bukhari 3126 says, “… the Prophet said, He who fights so that Allah’s Word(ie. Islam) should be superior, fights for Allah’s Cause.” Allah, the Supreme Destroyer, in Quran 9:111 says, “Surely Allah has purchased from the believers[Muslims] their souls and their money so that they may have the garden[Heavenly Paradise]. They engage in war for the sake of Allah[ie. Allah’s Cause), so they kill and are killed…”. Allah teaches that Death By Jihad leads to Muslim Paradise. Allah in Qur’an 3:169 says, “And do not consider those who were killed for the sake of Allah as dead. Yet they are alive with their lord, receiving their provision.”
Under Islam and Islamic Law, Muslims have the Legal Right and the Quranic Duty to terrorize Non-Muslims because neglecting this QURANIC DUTY is a CRIME of Blasphemy, Unbelief, and Infidelity against tyrannical Allah. Jihad means warfare against Non-Muslims to ESTABLISH ISLAM’S RELIGION AS SUPREME(Quran 3:115, 151; 9:5, 29, 111; Muslim Law Manual: “Reliance of the Traveller”, o9.0, etc.).
More specifically, Islam, a terroristic-totalitarian way of life, is a Muslim Terrorist Ideology and Murderous, Criminal Enterprise of: incitement, intolerance, continuous war, discrimination, oppression, segregation, slavery, supremacy, genocide, polygamy, propaganda, deceit, hatred, sedition, terrorism, and violence against all Non-Muslims as taught in the Quran(Quran 2:191, 208,216; 4:65, 89,91, 95, 115; 5:14,64; 8:12,39,60, 74; 9:5,21,29,36, 41,49, 73,88, 111,123; 21:92; 47:4; 49:15; 60:4; 61:9-11; 62:6; 89:14; etc.).
Siddi Nasrani says
Your quote, ” What is it about Russian despots and the madmen some of them rely on?”
I used to think like you= madman but then I realised that a madman does not know
what he is doing, & therefore needs to be in a asylum.
But these people know what they are doing, so that make them EVIL.
gravenimage says
+1
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I have heard Putin state (I think it was in the Tucker interview) that Yeltsin should have dismantled communist rule in the Soviet Union w/o breaking up that country. I wouldn’t say it’s completely wrong, for a few reasons:
⮞ The Russian Federation in the 90s was no enemy of the West, and so there really was no reason to reduce its size, population and resources from the Soviet Union. The latter could simply have been renamed the Russian Federation
⮞ One major fallout of this breakup was forcing people in various republics to migrate to their ethnic homes, even if they lived in another republic throughout their lives
⮞ There was a good case for the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. But none of the other republics had any historical precedence as a separate country – talking about Ukraine, Byelorussia, Georgia, at least not recently. Armenia has suffered as a result of independence due to becoming an attractive target for both Turkey and Azerbaijan. As for Central Asia, when it was Turkistan, it was the world’s leading center of jihad – from the Seljuqs and Khwarezmids to Tamerlane and Babur
⮞ Also, the Soviets invented artificial and weird boundaries in Central Asia. Historically, it was all “Turkistan”, even though the Tajiks are ethnically Farsi: their country has been a part of every Turkic empire since the Ghaznavids. At least 4 of the -stans – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan – could have been one country, Turkistan, w/ a capital at either Tashkent or Samarqand or Buqhara
⮞ Another thing that the Soviets were infamous for doing was encouraging ethnic divisions – their version of a “divide and rule” policy, where Russian lands would be given to other republics. Not only in the case of Crimea to Ukraine, but also the Kazakh Steppes – which was majority Russkie – to Kazakhstan. It didn’t matter too much when it was all one country, but the moment they broke up, you had the issue of Russians stranded in other countries
⮞ The 14 other republics that broke away from the Soviet Union had an advantage that they weren’t completely encapsulated by the Russian Federation, the way Lesotho is by South Africa. But if Uzbekistan deserves to be an independent country, then comes the question of several other republics fully contained within Russia, like Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, and who knows who else would have such a status. Which is why many Russians were alarmed at the prospects of the Soviet Union coming undone, b’cos that could mean that the Russian Federation was next
For this reason, Putin seems to believe that Yeltsin should have completely taken over power, but w/o breaking up the Soviet Union. Maybe re-brand it as the Russian Federation, or some similar name emphasizing its Russianess. Today, some 35 years after that breakup, Russian is still a well understood language in all those countries (except Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) despite all those republics promoting their own languages
Only thing I’d note: Putin has in the past celebrated countries that have either Russian populations or traditions: in his speech yesterday, he talked about Russian churches and graveyards in Alaska, which was once a part of the Russian empire. He has said similar things about Israel, and how Russian is the 4th most popular language in that country. In which case, he should cut the antisemitism and stop backing the likes of Iran, b’cos once that regime falls, he’ll have no allies left in the islamic world – at least not allies willing to be vassals
Luchtpint says
According to you :
“He has said similar things about Israel, and how Russian is the 4th most popular language in that country. In which case, he should cut the antisemitism”
According to me : It was Soviet antisemitism that caused most Jews of Russian origin to go to Israel in the first place. So why should he cut the antisemitism, considering the fact that he covets some degree of nostalgia to the ‘good old days’ of the Soviet Union ?
Think twice ! The man is a bullshitter, a liar, an untrustworthy bastard and a first class manipulator who’ll say anything to lull others to sleep.
He’s ex-KGB, for Pete’s sake !
gravenimage says
Introducing ‘Putin’s Philosopher’ Alexander Dugin, Conspiracy Theorist and Antisemite
………………………………………..
Sadly, I wish I could be surprised by this.
gravenimage says
Bizarrely, Dugin claims to both love Staln and the Church, despite the Soviet persectution of Christians:
“We are on the side of Stalin and the Soviet Union”.
“We, conservatives, want a strong, solid state, want order and healthy family, positive values, the reinforcing of the importance of religion and the Church in society”.
This kind of schizophrenia is not uncommon in Russia today.
Westman says
Persecution of Christians? Now? Every flavor of Christian religions who can afford it are proselytizing in Russia in 2025. Russia is now a Christian nation every bit as much as the US or Old Europe.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Russia does have a strong preference for the Russian Orthodox Church and don’t take too kindly to Protestant or Catholic evangelism in their country
I’m not a Christian, but have no idea why Othodox Christians – be it Russian, Greek, Syraic,… need to be converted to any of the other sects. They’re not Christian enough? Why can’t they simply be regarded externally as non-denominational Christians?
Alkflaeda says
I’m not sure that Protestant or Catholic evangelism is aimed at observant Orthodox Christians, but rather at nominal members of the Orthodox tradition. I agree that it would be good if such people could be helped to reconnect with their own roots in God, rather than being expected to adopt a faith community whose external expressions have been shaped by a different culture, though.
Alkflaeda says
As far as I can see, at the moment there are only two ways that the Temple could be rebuilt. One is if archaeologists find items that bear out the tradition that, when they were asked by their Muslim conquerors where the Holy of Holies had been sited, the Jews of the time lied, and the true site is near al-Aqsa, but not on its footprint. The other is if God takes a hand, in the form of a natural disaster such as an earthquake or lightning strike (though then there would be a move to rebuild the mosque, and I’m not sure that space for a Temple would be negotiable).