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Western mainstream media have played a major and deeply disturbing role in amplifying the ideas of Russian fascist ideologue Alexander Dugin, both in the West and beyond. 1/10

By falsely portraying Dugin as having considerable – if not definitive – influence on Kremlin thinking, they encouraged far-right as well as non-far-right sympathisers of the Putin regime around the world to regard his fascist ideas as legitimate critiques of Western liberal democracy. 2/10

The warped logic underpinning this is as follows: if one agrees with Putin’s view of the West, and if Putin is presumed to be influenced by Dugin (as Western media often claim), then it appears reasonable to turn to Dugin’s work as the supposed source of Putin’s anti-Western outlook. 3/10

In reality, Dugin’s role in the political sphere surrounding the Kremlin is largely instrumental rather than ideological. 4/10

For instance, he often functions as a scarecrow for the Russian public when the Presidential Administration seeks to normalise the Kremlin’s most extreme policies. 5/10

By presenting Putin’s decisions alongside Dugin’s more radical ideas, the former appear comparatively moderate – and therefore more acceptable – to the population. 6/10

Alternatively, Russian political entrepreneurs seeking to gain favour with the Kremlin use Dugin’s contacts in the West and the Global South to identify potential new allies for Russia’s geopolitical revisionism – allies they can then “sell” to the Presidential Administration. 7/10

None of this suggests that Dugin exerts any ideological influence on the Kremlin; the dynamic is purely instrumental. 8/10

But Western media outlets – in their misguided, sensationalist drive to uncover supposed “revelations” about Putin – have uncritically embraced Dugin’s own propaganda portraying himself as a key Kremlin-linked ideologue. 9/10