Putin’s Rasputin: The Dangerous Mind of Aleksandr Dugin

While world democracies squabble, Putin and his deranged philosopher are plotting to bring about an autocratic world order

I recently read a report from Pew research which showed that about a third of US Republicans have a ‘favourable view’ of Vladimir Putin, and have confidence in his handling of world affairs.

One need not dig too deeply to work out how that shift has occurred over the last four years. Let’s start with Trump’s inexplicable (not to mention unbelievably creepy) man-crush on the Russian autocrat. From his eagerness to bring Putin back into the G8, to his regular praise and support of Putin, all the way down to recent reports that Trump knew of Russia’s campaign to pay bounties to terrorist groups in Afghanistan to kill US soldiers, Trump continues with his non-stop praise of Putin and the way he runs Russia. “I respect Putin,” Trump said in November. “He’s a strong leader.”

Apparently, a growing number of his ‘base’ agree.

Clearly, for any president and his avid followers who are eager to “Make America Great Again”, looking to Russia and the autocratic cult of personality which has built up around Putin would seem seductive, even attractive and something to emulate. Putin…