The article that Professor Dr. Alexander Dugin, said to be a senior and highly influential adviser to Russian President Putin, published on 28 February 2022 under the title “Wartime Notes” may, I think, bring clarity to the (vague) comments made about the Black Sea’s Grey Rhino days.
In search engines one can come across claims that Professor Dr. Alexander Dugin is a high-ranking adviser to the Kremlin, and just as many assertive statements that he is not. Alexander Dugin is a Russian foreign policy adviser and one of the leading present-day representatives of the Neo-Eurasianist movement. He introduces himself first and foremost as a philosopher. At every opportunity he reminds us that ideas are the best way of exerting influence and that it is through these ideas that he establishes his connection with the government. Dugin, founder of the Russian School of Geopolitics and of the Eurasian Movement, is regarded as one of the most important representatives of modern Russian conservative thought in the line of the Slavophiles. Dugin holds doctorates in sociology, political science and philosophy. For six years, between 2008 and 2014, he headed the Department of the Sociology of International Relations at the Faculty of Sociology of Moscow State University. He has more than sixty books, including Foundations of Geopolitics, The Fourth Political Theory, The Theory of a Multipolar World, Noomakhia (24 volumes) and Ethnosociology. The influence of Dugin’s ideas in today’s Russia (including on political leaders) is acknowledged not only by those who defend him but also by his intellectual and political opponents. Although Dugin’s ideas are at times regarded as controversial or as not fitting in with society, everyone meets on the common ground that these ideas are inspiring and original.
Towards a Union of Eastern Slavs
President Putin outlined the goals of the military operation in Ukraine: demilitarisation and denazification. This is a very specific programme. To carry out demilitarisation by force (and all methods other than direct coercion have been exhausted and have produced no effect), complete military-strategic control over the entire territory is necessary. For denazification, complete political and administrative control over the whole country. This is not a request or a wish. It is an order. And to ensure that it is carried out, one must have a direct and clear form of hierarchy.
Of course, while hostilities continue it is still too early to speak of putting the stated goals into practice, but not to think about it at all would be irresponsible. The cost of this operation is very great. People are dying, and unfortunately will continue to die in ever greater numbers until a complete and crushing (irreversible!) victory is achieved. And this is where, perhaps, the most important thing begins. In order not to let a victory slip away, you need to have a clear plan of action.
It is quite obvious that it would be unreasonable to be content with bringing to power in Ukraine a force loyal to Russia. Moreover, I would simply call that “betrayal”.
Putin rightly says that we are now liberating Ukraine from the Anti-Russia junta. But there can be no other Ukraine. Both as a project and as a reality, Ukraine was, and can be, only and exclusively Anti-Russia. Otherwise, why should there be an independent statehood at all?
For this reason, to defeat Ukraine and to liberate Ukraine is a logical and geopolitical contradiction. Of course, it is possible to weaken the military potential many times over and to insist on the punishment of the criminals from among the nationalists and the punitive forces. But after some time, if you leave Ukraine in place, even under the control of pro-Moscow forces, everything will fall back into place. There is a logic in the political processes of Ukraine. And the matter lies not in the elites but in the state. It is what has been reproducing the same pattern since the time of the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia. Ukraine can only be an oligarchy. This means that it is doomed to be an Anti-Empire (according to the logic excellently explained in K. Malofeev’s book “Empire”).
However, military operations such as the one now being deployed can take place only once. For this reason Moscow has one single and final attempt to resolve the Ukrainian question. That is, we cannot afford any Yanukovych 2.0.
I believe that the solution lies in creating an East Slavic Union that would include Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Ukrainians and, in part, Belarusians [take] this name [as belonging] only to the Great Russians (“Muscovites”), that is, to those who created Vladimir (Moscow) Rus and then the Russian Empire on a world scale; we can forcefully make them accept a broader interpretation of the term. This must be taken into account. But Great Russians, Little Russians and Belarusians (and, incidentally, Rusyns) regard themselves as Eastern Slavs without any reservation. So let us unite the Eastern Slavs in a single political Union. And we shall create a common leadership made up of Eastern Slavs, regardless of how they define themselves at a lower level of ethnic classification. The main thing is to move away from the nation and from nation-states. After all, it is nations that are the cause of fratricidal wars – like the one now going on in Ukraine.
The Union of Eastern Slavs will preserve the peoples, but will abolish nations as imaginary and deliberately provocative artificial formations.
Who lives in Russia? Whoever wishes – all the citizens of the East Slavic Union. Who lives in Ukraine or Belarus? They do. Is this the state of the Great Russians? No. It is the state of the Eastern Slavs and of the other peoples who link their destiny with the Eastern Slavs.
“We are not at war with Ukraine!”
This is not a war with Ukraine. It is a confrontation with globalism as an integral planetary phenomenon.
A confrontation at every level – geopolitical and ideological. Russia rejects everything in globalisation – unipolarity and Atlanticism on the one hand, and liberalism, anti-tradition, technocracy, in a word the Great Reset, on the other. It is clear that all European leaders are part of the Atlanticist liberal elite. And it is with it that we have gone to war. Hence their natural reaction.
Russia is now being excluded from the globalist networks. It no longer has a choice: either it will build its own world or it will disappear. Russia has set a course for building its own world, its own civilisation. And now the first step is being taken. But in the face of globalisation only a large space, a state-continent, a state-civilisation can be sovereign. No country can sustain complete closure for long. Russia is now creating a global field of resistance.
Its victory will be the victory of all alternative forces – right and left – and of all peoples. As always, we are setting in motion the most complex and dangerous processes. But when we win, everyone will make use of them. That is how it is intended. We are now creating the preconditions for real multipolarity. And those who are now ready to kill us will be the first to benefit from our success tomorrow.
I almost always write what turns out to be right. This too will come to pass.
Until the next act begins, a pause in relations with the West – “Liberation”
What does Russia’s break with the West mean? It is liberation. The modern West, where the Rothschilds, the Soroses, the Schwabs, Bill Gates and the Zuckerbergs triumph, is the most repulsive phenomenon in world history. It is no longer the West of Greco-Roman Mediterranean culture, nor the Christian Middle Ages, nor even the violent and contradictory twentieth century. It is a graveyard of the toxic waste of civilisation; it is anti-civilisation. And the more quickly and completely Russia breaks away from it, the more quickly it will return to its roots. To what? To the Christian, the Greco-Roman, the Mediterranean… — to the European… That is, to the roots shared with the true West. These roots – its own! – the modern West has cut off. But in Russia they have remained.
Only now is Eurasia raising its head. Only now is liberalism in Russia completely losing the ground beneath its feet. Russia is not Western Europe. Russia followed the Greeks, Byzantium and Eastern Christianity. And it is still moving along this path. Yes, with zigzags and deviations. Sometimes getting stuck. But it is moving. Russia has risen to defend the values of Tradition against the modern world. This is precisely a “revolt against the modern world”. Did you not know? And Europe needs to break with the West, and even the USA needs to follow those who reject globalisation. And then everyone will understand what the present war in Ukraine means. Many in Ukraine would have understood this. But the terrible, frenzied liberal-Nazi propaganda has left no stone unturned in the minds of Ukrainians. They will come to their senses and will fight together with us for the Kingdom of Light, for tradition and for a true Christian European identity. Ukrainians are our brothers. They were, they are and they will be.
A break with the West is not a break with Europe. It is a break with death, degeneration and suicide. It is the key to recovery. And Europe itself – the peoples of Europe – should follow our example: overthrow the anti-popular globalist junta. And build a true European Home, a European Palace, a European Cathedral.
Stop the Hatred
In my view the most important thing right now is to stay calm. The speed of the military operation surprised not only enemies but friends as well. No one expected it. Hence the outburst of hysteria on all sides. But here it is important to understand this: establishing control over a huge, well-armed country that has been preparing for war with us for 8 years, and morally for much longer, cannot be a matter of one week. After a rapid first day, events cannot develop that fast even in the most favourable scenario. This requires endurance and a clear mind from everyone.
There are several points that seem to me to be the main ones.
1. Patriots fear that under certain conditions (for example, after clearing the territories of the DPR and LPR) we may stop. An empty fear. Moscow could launch such a large-scale operation, regardless of almost anything, including nuclear blackmail, only with clear and non-negotiable goals. Therefore everything will be carried through to the final goal. At any price and in any form.
2. Liberals (conscious enemies of Russia) and emotional pacifists (people who ignore geopolitics, political science and international relations) are under the illusion that protests and online petitions can change something (they can do nothing).
3. Under these conditions, all Western steps against Russia will only strengthen the patriotic wing and ultimately weaken the liberal wing. They will not greatly affect the lives of ordinary people. After all, only ideologically fanatical monetarists believe that the currency board is the only model of money. They do not even want to hear anything about financial sovereignty. In vain. The state can issue as much money as it needs. To tame inflation at the same time, dual-circuit emission (according to A. Galushka’s plan) can be resorted to. The West did not give us high technologies anyway. The Asian energy market is potentially infinite for us. So let us persevere and continue to grow stronger.
4. On many patriotic resources, the suffering Ukrainian neo-Nazis are desperately trying to hack websites and social media accounts. For those who logically ought to be mobilised to repel our forces physically, where do the time and energy for such activity come from? The answer is that the attacks are not coming from Ukraine. Since the Maidan, Ukraine has been a cover for NATO’s larger geopolitical strategy against us. Therefore we shall remove this cover.
5. Ukrainians have always been and will be our brothers. Let them say whatever they like. We are Orthodox Eastern Slavs with common roots, different twists of history and a common future. And no one can do anything about that. We have parted several times and then come together again. Under different conditions and in different ways. Ukrainians are not enemies; they are ours. We Great Russians are no sugar either. And they are no sugar. But they and we must show respect. Soon we shall live with them in one state. And they will only benefit from it. And we must make sure that they gain. But only from unity, not from fratricide.
That is why the hatred must be stopped.
Georgia and its neutrality
Georgia, which has not joined the sanctions against Russia, is acting very reasonably and correctly. This may stem merely from cold calculation and the desire to preserve the state. But it is also a wise move. The fraternal Orthodox Georgian people experienced the same temptation of Bernard-Henri Lévy and of globalism and suffered terrible losses. But Ukraine is about to vanish. And everyone who understands at least something understands this. And you would not wish this on any other country.
If Georgia continues to act adequately, this will certainly evoke a corresponding – positive – response from Moscow. In a critical situation any gesture, even if it is a matter of neutrality, takes on great significance, whereas otherwise it would be invisible
On the passivity of good people
I noticed long ago: bright and righteous people are concentrated and shy, and this sometimes leads to passivity. Scum is active, aggressive and shameless. Without getting used to this, let us nevertheless take part in the course of the historical battle of Light against Darkness. It is now very important to support our people – at every level – in prayers, in thoughts, in fasting, in words, in texts, even in reposting important and properly organised information (not just anything).
The system in the flow of information (according to Luhmann) first of all discards what is superfluous, irrelevant or infected (encoded). In this way information becomes meaningful and turns into a message. A well-chosen news digest, isolated from the flow, can give the reader the right orientation and create an adequate picture of what is going on. And any bright person can do this. As if we did not care about anything. When we are active, focused and alert, we have an effect.
The West’s Plan “B”
It is becoming obvious that the West has surrendered Ukraine.
But there is also a plan B. It is easy to reproduce. The bet is placed on the period when the war is over. Then there will be centres of terrorist activity on the single, permeable Russian-Ukrainian territory. They will operate in Ukraine against the official authorities and the Russian army, but will also spread to the territory of Russia. The metropolitan liberal intelligentsia will be politely asked to shelter a few Nazis with mines so that they can stage a terrorist attack. The idea is to create chaos and the preconditions for a regime change operation. Foreign instructors have been sharpened for this.
Something similar was planned with the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan: a bet that the Taliban, banned in the Russian Federation, would open a southern front against Russia in Central Asia.
Taking this plan into account, one should simply do what is necessary.
We are of the opinion that the course of events needs to be read by taking into account the words of Prof. Dugin, who announced his article in this most assertive manner.
Keywords: Russia Moscow Ukraine Putin
Translated from the Turkish original.