Aleksandr Dugin is a Russian political scientist and has been given credit/blame for convincing Putin to invade the Ukraine. Indeed, he has been called "Putin's Brain" by the highly-respected Foreign Affairs. Born in 1962, his father was a lawyer and senior military intelligence officer, while his mother was a doctor. Dugin eventually earned a PhD and taught at Moscow State University, until he was fired in 2014. He is a very bright person indeed!
He is also alleged to be the intellectual genius behind Breitbart CEO Paul Bannon, who was Trump's campaign manager. Of course, that allegation comes from Glenn Beck.
Still, there is a subtle reflection between the two men. Dugin is a strong nationalist and advocate of returning Russia to the stature it had during the USSR days, arguing forcibly for the reunification of all Russian-speaking populations. He wants Russia to return to its past historic greatness, and he is leading the way. To appreciate how he clings to the past, consider that when the Russian Orthodox Church split over procedures and liturgy, Dugin stayed with the side avoiding any change. Is he just another anti-change agent? Or, is he pushing Putin to change Russian reality to the way it used to be?
Is he dangerous? The reason he was fired from the University was that, when asked about what should happen to the non-Russia-speaking people in the Ukraine, he said "Kill them, kill them, kill them. There should not be any more conversations." And, this is Putin's Brain??
I pray Dugin is not an intellectual godfather to Bannon, but it concerns me that Breitbart predictably rails against things having changed, always suspecting there is a Fifth Column of sneaky people behind every change.
If change for change's sake is a bad idea, then why isn't no-change for the sake of no-change also a bad idea?
