Thought-provoking Piece on Dugin

A thought-provoking piece on Alexander Dugin has appeared in Playing Civilization, a new English-language blog run by Georgy Birger, who describes himself as “a Russian journalist in exile.” It is “The Imaginary West and East of Alexander Dugin,” available here.

Birger argues that “it is [Dugin’s] global connections—not the Slavophile philosophy—that make him valuable to the Kremlin,” and that this is risky for him, as he is “the last of ‘Russian civilization’ fans to support the West in any form [that form being support of the Western Radial Right]. Dugin’s involvement in Western culture marks him as someone who has spent too much time with the enemy.”

Birger also explores what he calls “the imaginary West—a vision of the West Russians have crafted over centuries.” The imaginary West that is currently dominant, created with Dugin’s help, is of “the Western radical right as heroes fighting the tyranny of ‘obsolete’ liberalism.” Dugin’s role in Russia. Birger further argues, is “to observe the West, to understand it, and to explain what is going on to those who cannot be bothered with it while they are making Russia great again.” 

The paradox that  Dugin is a Russian nationalist who likes to lace his speeches and writings with non-Russian terms and names has been pointed out before. Birger's piece takes this line of thought several steps further.