Shortly before the elections, during a meeting with Russian-speaking bloggers, Netanyahu stated that Russia was conducting a massive campaign to undermine Israel. He specifically mentioned the Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, calling him a “terrible person" who exerts a destructive influence on young American right-wingers, turning them against Israel.
So, who is Dugin, what is his influence on Kremlin policy, and why is he a “terrible person"?
Atlanticism versus Eurasianism
Dugin divides the world into two gigantic camps:
- Thalassocracy (Atlanticism): The Western world, led by the US and the UK, whose values include the market economy, individualism, secularism, liberal democracy, and cosmopolitanism.
- Tellurocracy (Eurasianism): Continental civilizations, with Russia at their core. Their values include hierarchy, collectivism, service to the state, strong supreme authority, and adherence to religious tradition. The proponents of Eurasianism encompass all the cultures and civilizations of Eurasia: Russia, China, and the Islamic world-including regional powers like Turkey and Iran.
A life-or-death struggle is underway between these two worlds. There is - and can be - no room for compromise; the war must end with the total defeat of one side.
By virtue of its position, Russia serves as the core of the Eurasian camp, uniting all other players around itself.
From a marginal movement to a mainstream ideology
Before the invasion of Ukraine, Dugin’s eccentric views occupied a marginal place in Russian politics. However, the protracted, grueling, and bloody meat grinder in Ukraine has radically changed the situation.
The Russian regime found itself cut off from and hostile toward the West. Economically weak and deprived of Western technology, it could henceforth rely only on Asian regimes. Politics and economics dictated the need for a new ideology, and Dugin’s construct fit perfectly into this new geopolitical reality: totalitarian regimes, autocracies, and theocracies of the East - rooted in the traditions of the past - set against a cosmopolitan, “decaying," and “satanic" West.
Israel as a bulwark of Atlanticism in the heart of Eurasia
What is Israel’s role in this “war of worlds"? It is strictly and unequivocally negative. From this perspective, Israel is a proxy outpost of “Atlantic civilization" - an existential enemy of “age-old traditional civilizations." Therefore, Israel must not merely be weakened, but completely destroyed.
This concept has been adopted by the Kremlin and is being fully implemented. While Moscow previously sought to act as an objective mediator in the Middle East and even showed a certain sympathy toward the Jewish state, it has now fully and unequivocally aligned itself with Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas.
The era of benevolent neutrality is a thing of the past; it has been replaced by open and arrogant hostility.
Dugin has begun attributing all sorts of conspiracies and schemes to Israel, much like the Nazis and Stalin did regarding the Jews. According to his account, the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall was orchestrated by the Mossad, and Israel has become a haven for those who loathe Russia and its imperial greatness.
Dugin’s obsession with Israel has spread to the Kremlin. His concept - that “the war in the Middle East is part of our broader struggle against American hegemony"-has become a cornerstone for the Russian Foreign Ministry and the country’s leading propaganda outlets.
Since October 7, the sympathies of the Russian elite have shifted entirely toward Iran and its allies.
Destroying Israel using American hands
How can one undermine and destroy this "bastion of Atlanticism" to achieve a decisive turning point in the “clash of worlds"? To do so, one must strike at Israel’s most vulnerable point - namely, its alliance with the United States, and more precisely, its alliance with the Republican Party, given that the Democratic Party has already largely turned its back on Israel.
Dugin and Kremlin propagandists are instilling the idea among impressionable young Americans that U.S. support for Israel is an unnecessary burden. Moreover, they argue that since Israel serves as a bastion of the ‘liberal globalism’ and ‘woke culture’ that is hostile to ‘traditional America,’ so it is in the interest of ‘patriotic Americans’ to bring about the destruction of this bastion - the sooner, the better.
Among Dugin’s followers are Tucker Carlson, Glenn Greenwald, and Alex Jones. Steve Bannon even met with him for a conversation that reportedly lasted eight hours. Other figures who openly promote Dugin’s ideas include Jack Posobiec, one of the most influential activists among the American youth right, with millions of followers on X; Lauren Southern, a well-known right-wing activist and blogger; and Jack Hanick, a former producer for Fox News.
Nick Fuentes and his ‘Groypers’ have also emulated Dugin’s ideology, combining overt authoritarianism and militant antisemitism with a hatred for Israel and fervent sympathy for Eurasian regimes and the Islamic world, including Iran and its ‘Axis of Resistance.’
The Russian machine for smearing Israel is running at full throttle on social media, targeting young American Republicans. They are led to believe that Tel Aviv is one of the hubs of global LGBT culture and liberalism in the Middle East. Accordingly, they are told that by defending Israel, they are defending the very same "progressive left agenda" that they oppose back home.
To what extent does this activity influence the worldview of right-wing youth in America?
The impact appears to be significant. One poll showed that 46 percent of voters aged 18-24 and 60 percent of those aged 25-29 would support a proposal “to completely dismantle Israel and replace it with a Palestinian-led nation in exchange for ending the war with Iran and providing the United States with lower oil and gas prices."
Moreover, 4 In 10 Young Americans Support Sharia Law. Another survey, conducted by the Republican-aligned polling firm Cygnal among 1,500 likely midterm voters, found that just 41 percent of respondents aged 18-29 support Israel’s right to exist.
The Republican Party and Israel have a massive task ahead of them to neutralize Dugin’s toxic propaganda.
The younger generation of American right-wingers must realize that the destruction of Israel is merely the first step toward the destruction of both American democracy and the United States as a nation. The ultimate goal of ‘Eurasian’ tyrannies is not cooperation with the United States, but its total destruction as a civilization that is both hostile and dangerous to them. As Dugin himself has noted, there can be no room for compromise.
If the American youth who today listen to Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Nicholas Fuentes, and now Vance, fail to grasp this simple truth, they will eventually have to bid farewell to their country.