
Putin’s New Martyr for the Russian Cause
I used to hang out with a few acolytes of Russian political philosopher Aleksandr Dugin in Moscow in the early 2000s, long before he gained notoriety as a far-right, nationalist ideologue. They and I went to the same concerts and shared a preference for esoteric British underground bands, such as Coil, Current 93, and Death in June. Back then, these young Dugin followers struck me as harmless dorks more committed to psychedelic drugs than building a neofascist Russian empire from the Atlantic Ocean to the Far East, as their ideology—called Eurasianism—envisions. Their 1930s-style Blackshirt outfits were cringeworthy but not too alarming; actual Nazi skinheads roaming Moscow’s streets were a much more evident threat to me and my friends.… Seguir leyendo »