My reaction to the recent Spectator interview with the radical geopolitical activist and mock-spiritualist Dugin. Spoiler alert: criticism of the article is fair. But first, who is Dugin, and what does he think of Putin, and vice versa? 1/20

For Dugin, Putin has some of the right form but none of the right content. Putin's politics is about Putin, Dugin thinks, but not about what Russia truly needs. However, Dugin thinks Putin is necessary. 2/20

For Dugin, Putin is not so much a necessary evil, but a pivotal part of a transitional stage that will eventually culminate in what Russia is truly meant to become. 'Transitional' is the key word here. 3/20

For Dugin, permanent Putinism would be a catastrophe, just as Western liberalism is a catastrophe. Well, then, what is Russia meant to be eventually, in Dugin's view? Here Dugin's justification for the war comes in: 4/20

(1) Dugin thinks Russia must sever itself from the West. (2) Dugin thinks Russia must develop its true identity - it doesn't have it yet. (3) To do 1 & 2 Dugin thinks Russia must be appropriately geographically unconstrained (yes, you may think of Lebensraum) 5/20

The destruction of contemporary Ukraine as an outcome - but also as a process (!) - is the site on which Russia will discover what its true politics and social form should be. Wait a minute, why am I being so vague? 6/20

This is because Dugin himself is vague. The ideas Russia needs, Dugin thinks, still need to be constructed, and no one - including him - can know what they will be. 7/20

Dugin believes that the war is part of a process of collective self-realisation for Russia which will eventually lead to the construction of Russia's political identity. 8/20

This is why numerous comments from Dugin, and from his late daughter Darya, cast Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine as a mystical act of creation: Ps. it is tragic how derivative these words from Darya are; an imitation of her father. 9/20

What does Putin think of all of this? Putin's attitude to Dugin can be gleaned by observing Putin's public responses to Alexander Prokhanov, an elder fellow traveller of Dugin's in pursuit of 'the Russian soul'. 10/20

Putin distances himself from Prokhanov with a condescending smirk while uttering amiable compulsory formalities. It's similar with Dugin. 11/20

Putin doesn't read the sorts of books Dugin writes. We will eventually find out what Putin actually reads, but we can be confident that Dugin isn't it. Likewise, while Putin always has a quote ready to pull from Ivan Ilyin, it's safe to say he doesn't read him either. 12/20

It is true that there is a mystical element to Putin's motivation for war. But this comes from Putin's personal relationships & conversations. It is bec Dugin knows that Putin's mysticism doesn't come from him that he is so keen to anticipate it and build his profile. 13/20

Now to the ethics of interviewing Dugin. @Dr. Ian Garner objected that the Spectator article whitewashed Dugin by omitting odious statements central to Dugin's view of the war. I agree with Ian. Let's break this down. 14/20 https://x.com/irgarner/status/1744031921955365244?s=20…

Dugin may be over-interviewed in the West, where parts of the media sloppily mischaracterise him as 'Putin's brain', overstating his influence. But it is not wrong to interview Dugin. Any issue that arises will be with how it is done, not with the interview itself. 15/20

Yet there is an editorial responsibility to present Dugin's view on the war without sanitising it. The article doesn't do that. The are two exceptions to this rule but neither apply in this case. 16/20

One is if the average reader is expected to know such context. Dugin is just not well enough known to a general Western audience for this. The other is if the interview is not about the war, but about academic philosophy or art. 17/20

But why interview Dugin at all? Why not dismiss Dugin as an odious character & an unimportant intellectual? Because editorially, you can judge Dugin's odiousness but not his talent. 18/20

Whether Dugin has philosophical talent is itself a philosophical quesiton. In a world in which great talent is at best recognised retrospectively, the results of only interviewing thinkers we think are important would be disastrous. 19/20

In 2024 I will be doing a long form video essay on Dugin on my main YouTube channel, which will have much more about Dugin’s views and his place in Russian politics. Let me know, here or on YouTube, if you have any particular Qs relating to Dugin you’d like me to address! 20/20