The daughter of the ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue, close to the Kremlin and fervent supporter of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, Alexander Dougin, was killed on the night of Saturday August 20 to Sunday August 21 in the explosion of his car in the Moscow region. Alexander Dugin”is so ultra that it is infrequent, even for someone like Vladimir Putin“who has all the same”taken up a number of his theories“, analyzed this Sunday on franceinfo the teacher at Sciences Po and specialist in international issues, Nicolas Tenzer, the day after the death of the daughter of the Russian ideologist, Daria Douguina, journalist and political scientist, who also showed support open to the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
franceinfo: Who is Alexandre Douguine?
Nicholas Tenzer: He is a 60-year-old Russian ideologue, very close to the European and particularly French far right, known for his anti-Semitic and ultra-nationalist opinions, for his flirtation also with certain aspects of Nazism… He is also the great defender of this called Eurasianism, a doctrine strongly supported by Putin himself, which aims to create a form of Greater Russia, to bring together all the Slavic peoples under the influence of Moscow.
“Alexander Dugin is also very favorable to the war in Ukraine. In 2014, he even said that all Ukrainians should be killed”.
Nicholas Tenzerat franceinfo
You were talking about influences as far as France, that is to say?
He regularly met personalities like Marion Maréchal or Jean-Marie Le Pen, as well as a certain number of ideologues very close to the extreme right. There is a kind of mystical, pagan syncretism behind it… So it has an influence, also in other countries.
Is he close to Vladimir Putin?
No, it’s not really close. Firstly, because Alexandre Douguine is so ultra that he cannot be approached, even for someone like Vladimir Putin. Even if the Russian president has taken up a certain number of his theories, in particular this famous Eurasianism which would consist in creating a Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok. Vladimir Putin therefore took elements from Alexander Dougin, as from other nationalists, to create this kind of syncretism that is Putinism.
Who do you think may have committed this attack?
It is certainly not Ukraine that committed this attack, any more than foreign services. It’s totally impossible. Are these different currents within the security services? Are these mafia groups? We have to wait to see it, even if we cannot really consider that the investigation carried out by the Russian services will be completely reliable. But in any case, the source is certainly internal to Russia.
Could this assassination attempt have consequences for the war in Ukraine?
Yes of course. It can be exploited by the Kremlin and serve as a pretext for new attacks on the occasion of the anniversary, on August 24, of the independence of Ukraine. Even before this attack, President Zelensky alerted the world to the risks of more violent, even more deadly actions by Russia against Ukraine.