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I implore everyone alarmed by recent Russian assaults on Western Democratic institutions to get their hands on an English translation of 'The Foundations of Geo

I implore everyone alarmed by recent Russian assaults on Western Democratic institutions to get their hands on an English translation of 'The Foundations of Geopolitics' by Aleksandr Dugin. Dugin is a Russian academic and the book is essentially a textbook on how Russia should seek to subvert and destabilize Europe, the US and other Russian rivals in order to forge a new empire for the explicit purpose of ethnic Russian domination of the world. Dugin is not some fringe academic and the book is well known among the elite of the Russian state. According to the Wiki page: >"The book has had a large influence within the Russian military, police, and foreign policy elites and was allegedly used as a textbook in the General Staff Academy of Russian military." More on the book's approach towards destabilizing America: >"Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics." We must unite in the face of division, both for the sake of unity and because the Russians are actively trying to divide us. I haven't been able to find a copy of the English translation online. I was only able to get my hands on one because of a connection that works in DC. If anyone knows where to get one online please post a link. Wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics?wpr...

klenwell 9y ago
This New Yorker article from March provides a lot of background on Russia's "Hybrid War" strategy and its motivations: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/06/trump-putin-and-the-new-cold-war https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/06/trump-putin-an... Reading that article left me pretty slack-jawed. It cites a 2013 article, "The Value of Science in Prediction", by Chief of General Staff of Russian Federated Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov as a canonical text behind the Russian election interference campaign. After reading the New Yorker article, I tracked down a translation of that text here: http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/MilitaryReview/Archives/English/MilitaryReview_20160228_art008.pdf http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/MilitaryReview/Archives/English/... Strange to think that the Arab Spring helped function as a trigger for white nationalist marches in this country.
- mirimir 9y ago
  Yes, it was that New Yorker article that I was remembering. In particular, this bit: > In 1996, during a summit meeting in Moscow, Clinton went for an early-morning run with Talbott in the Sparrow Hills, near Moscow State University. Clinton had known Talbott since they were students at Oxford, and confided his anxiety. He did not regret the expansion of NATO or the decision, at last, to battle Serbian forces in Bosnia. But he knew that he was making Yeltsin’s political life excruciatingly difficult. > “We keep telling ol’ Boris, ‘O.K., now, here’s what you’ve got to do next—here’s some more shit for your face,’ ” Clinton told Talbott as they ran. “And that makes it real hard for him, given what he’s up against and who he’s dealing with.” > Earlier that year, Yeltsin had summoned Talbott. “I don’t like it when the U.S. flaunts its superiority,” he told him. “Russia’s difficulties are only temporary, and not only because we have nuclear weapons but also because of our economy, our culture, our spiritual strength. All that amounts to a legitimate, undeniable basis for equal treatment. Russia will rise again! I repeat: Russia will rise again.”
  - nradov 9y ago
    And yet so far Yeltsin is still wrong: Russia's difficulties appear to be permanent. Population and life expectancy have declined. GDP growth has been low and erratic; currently their economy is smaller than Italy. They rank 131st on the worldwide corruption index. All of these problems are self inflicted.
    - mirimir 9y ago
      Maybe so. But time will tell. In any case, it's not the accuracy of the prediction that matters here. It's the motivation.
      - mirimir 9y ago
        And it's also not very charitable. It's an aspect of a mindset that perpetuates the cycle of violence. Long term, it works better for victors to be forgiving and magnanimous. But sadly enough, it's probably too late for that. Maybe about a century too late.
baybal2 9y ago
Another excellent speech on reds' tactic is this https://youtu.be/5gnpCqsXE8g https://youtu.be/5gnpCqsXE8g , old, but I believe relevant
codedokode 9y ago
I didn't read the book but it is worth noting that those ideas are Dugin's personal opinion (of course there might be people who support it, for example there are people that dream of reviving Soviet Union). It is not official Moscow's policy. Also ethnic Russian domination might be a bit difficult because in Russia itself there are many different ethnic groups [1] that wouldn't approve this idea. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Russia
mirimir 9y ago
The US "won" the Cold War by bankrupting the former Soviet Union. And then they humiliated its leadership. Putin was Yeltsin's protégé, and watched him dying of alcoholism. He's still angry. And remember, much of his family died in the siege of Leningrad. So, yes. They have a plan.
- meri_dian 9y ago
  The Soviets bankrupted themselves by being Soviets.
- Sommersonn 9y ago
  Putin is angry because Yeltsin died from alcohol? What US has to do with it? Or with the fact that Putin's family died in the siege (which was USSR faut, by the way, since they've friended Hitler in 1939)?
  - mirimir 9y ago
    Putin is angry because the US humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed. Which was reflected in Yeltsin's collapse, through depression and alcoholism. And regardless of the causes of Leningrad's sacking, many of Putin's family died there. All of which has given him a rather negative attitude toward the US and its allies. And by the way, remember that the US and its allies invaded Russia at the end of WWII, after the Tzar was deposed. So it's not at all surprising that Stalin initially allied Russia with Germany.
    - nl 9y ago
      WW1, not WW2 (I think that is just a typo)
    - Sommersonn 9y ago
      US humiliated Russia? Care to provide some clarifications?
codedokode 9y ago
Calling publishing some ads in Facebook an "assault on Democratic Institutions" is a bit exaggerated.
- tim333 9y ago
  The Russians have done a lot more than Facebook ads. I'll give you $100k on ads from Russia is not much compared to the ~$800m the Koch's are said to have put up.
nradov 9y ago
A lot of Putin's ideas about how to subvert and destabilize western powers have apparently also come from Vladislav Surkov. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/hidden-author-putinism-russia-vladislav-surkov/382489/ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/hi...
dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago
That's why it troubles me so much that everyone succumbs to this, like small children. Not just the media that are fueling the divide - but my own friends, making big drama everyday, insulting those with different political views - making the divide even bigger. It really saddens me, especially when I see it among my close ones. It's like mass hysteria, it got completely out of control.
tim333 9y ago
Here's Aleksandr Dugin on youtube talking about Trump's election https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEQlNJdR8jo&feature=youtu.be&t=2m29s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEQlNJdR8jo&feature=youtu.be...
javajosh 9y ago
I'm curious: other than a will to power, is there any philosophical or principle-driven reason for Russia's actions? In other words, why don't Russians want Western liberal democracy for themselves?
- unfunco 9y ago
  A similar question, but specifically related to "…in order to forge a new empire for the explicit purpose of ethnic Russian domination of the world." – what is the purpose of this in this day and age, it would take generations by which time the people initiating change would be dead, is it just an archaic form of racism?
- codedokode 9y ago
  In Russia the word "democracy" has some negative meaning. After Soviet Union collapse there was a period (1990-2000) of "freedom" with economic downturn, poverty, hyperinflation, corruption, raise of criminal activity and a war in Chechnya. By the way, Wikipedia says [1] that ecomomic problems might be a result of reforms suggested by American economists. Russia began recovering only when Putin became a President. Putin likes to remind about this saying things like "Do you remember what the country was before I became the President? You don't want to return to that time, don't you?" People in Russia want higher salary (median salary is $500/month) and reasonable mortgage interest rates (now it can be as high as 12%), not more democracy. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Russia#Transition_to_market_economy_.281991.E2.80.9398.29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Russia#Transition_t...
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  The Russian regime doesn't want Western liberal democracy because it's incompatible with the self-sustaining kleptocratic autocracy that they are running. Individual Russian people may or may not want Western liberal democracy for any of a variety of reasons (they “not” side in part driven by regime propaganda), but those preferences are not controlling regime actions.
- baybal2 9y ago
  No, double digits of KGB and CPSU staff had bank accounts abroad just like Chinese CCP members do now. And more power, means more money for them, just like usual. To disrupt Russian political establishment, you do same things you do to disrupt criminal gangs. Plain and simple. Gathering all of NATO's paratroopers and sending them to Moscow will work too, but at a bigger expense

klenwell 9y ago

This New Yorker article from March provides a lot of background on Russia's "Hybrid War" strategy and its motivations: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/06/trump-putin-and-the-new-cold-war https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/06/trump-putin-an... Reading that article left me pretty slack-jawed. It cites a 2013 article, "The Value of Science in Prediction", by Chief of General Staff of Russian Federated Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov as a canonical text behind the Russian election interference campaign. After reading the New Yorker article, I tracked down a translation of that text here: http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/MilitaryReview/Archives/English/MilitaryReview_20160228_art008.pdf http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/MilitaryReview/Archives/English/... Strange to think that the Arab Spring helped function as a trigger for white nationalist marches in this country.

mirimir 9y ago
Yes, it was that New Yorker article that I was remembering. In particular, this bit: > In 1996, during a summit meeting in Moscow, Clinton went for an early-morning run with Talbott in the Sparrow Hills, near Moscow State University. Clinton had known Talbott since they were students at Oxford, and confided his anxiety. He did not regret the expansion of NATO or the decision, at last, to battle Serbian forces in Bosnia. But he knew that he was making Yeltsin’s political life excruciatingly difficult. > “We keep telling ol’ Boris, ‘O.K., now, here’s what you’ve got to do next—here’s some more shit for your face,’ ” Clinton told Talbott as they ran. “And that makes it real hard for him, given what he’s up against and who he’s dealing with.” > Earlier that year, Yeltsin had summoned Talbott. “I don’t like it when the U.S. flaunts its superiority,” he told him. “Russia’s difficulties are only temporary, and not only because we have nuclear weapons but also because of our economy, our culture, our spiritual strength. All that amounts to a legitimate, undeniable basis for equal treatment. Russia will rise again! I repeat: Russia will rise again.”
- nradov 9y ago
  And yet so far Yeltsin is still wrong: Russia's difficulties appear to be permanent. Population and life expectancy have declined. GDP growth has been low and erratic; currently their economy is smaller than Italy. They rank 131st on the worldwide corruption index. All of these problems are self inflicted.
  - mirimir 9y ago
    Maybe so. But time will tell. In any case, it's not the accuracy of the prediction that matters here. It's the motivation.
    - mirimir 9y ago
      And it's also not very charitable. It's an aspect of a mindset that perpetuates the cycle of violence. Long term, it works better for victors to be forgiving and magnanimous. But sadly enough, it's probably too late for that. Maybe about a century too late.

baybal2 9y ago

Another excellent speech on reds' tactic is this https://youtu.be/5gnpCqsXE8g https://youtu.be/5gnpCqsXE8g , old, but I believe relevant

codedokode 9y ago

I didn't read the book but it is worth noting that those ideas are Dugin's personal opinion (of course there might be people who support it, for example there are people that dream of reviving Soviet Union). It is not official Moscow's policy. Also ethnic Russian domination might be a bit difficult because in Russia itself there are many different ethnic groups [1] that wouldn't approve this idea. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Russia

mirimir 9y ago

The US "won" the Cold War by bankrupting the former Soviet Union. And then they humiliated its leadership. Putin was Yeltsin's protégé, and watched him dying of alcoholism. He's still angry. And remember, much of his family died in the siege of Leningrad. So, yes. They have a plan.

meri_dian 9y ago
The Soviets bankrupted themselves by being Soviets.
Sommersonn 9y ago
Putin is angry because Yeltsin died from alcohol? What US has to do with it? Or with the fact that Putin's family died in the siege (which was USSR faut, by the way, since they've friended Hitler in 1939)?
- mirimir 9y ago
  Putin is angry because the US humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed. Which was reflected in Yeltsin's collapse, through depression and alcoholism. And regardless of the causes of Leningrad's sacking, many of Putin's family died there. All of which has given him a rather negative attitude toward the US and its allies. And by the way, remember that the US and its allies invaded Russia at the end of WWII, after the Tzar was deposed. So it's not at all surprising that Stalin initially allied Russia with Germany.
  - nl 9y ago
    WW1, not WW2 (I think that is just a typo)
  - Sommersonn 9y ago
    US humiliated Russia? Care to provide some clarifications?

codedokode 9y ago

Calling publishing some ads in Facebook an "assault on Democratic Institutions" is a bit exaggerated.

tim333 9y ago
The Russians have done a lot more than Facebook ads. I'll give you $100k on ads from Russia is not much compared to the ~$800m the Koch's are said to have put up.

nradov 9y ago

A lot of Putin's ideas about how to subvert and destabilize western powers have apparently also come from Vladislav Surkov. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/hidden-author-putinism-russia-vladislav-surkov/382489/ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/hi...

dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago

That's why it troubles me so much that everyone succumbs to this, like small children. Not just the media that are fueling the divide - but my own friends, making big drama everyday, insulting those with different political views - making the divide even bigger. It really saddens me, especially when I see it among my close ones. It's like mass hysteria, it got completely out of control.

tim333 9y ago

Here's Aleksandr Dugin on youtube talking about Trump's election https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEQlNJdR8jo&feature=youtu.be&t=2m29s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEQlNJdR8jo&feature=youtu.be...

javajosh 9y ago

I'm curious: other than a will to power, is there any philosophical or principle-driven reason for Russia's actions? In other words, why don't Russians want Western liberal democracy for themselves?

unfunco 9y ago
A similar question, but specifically related to "…in order to forge a new empire for the explicit purpose of ethnic Russian domination of the world." – what is the purpose of this in this day and age, it would take generations by which time the people initiating change would be dead, is it just an archaic form of racism?
codedokode 9y ago
In Russia the word "democracy" has some negative meaning. After Soviet Union collapse there was a period (1990-2000) of "freedom" with economic downturn, poverty, hyperinflation, corruption, raise of criminal activity and a war in Chechnya. By the way, Wikipedia says [1] that ecomomic problems might be a result of reforms suggested by American economists. Russia began recovering only when Putin became a President. Putin likes to remind about this saying things like "Do you remember what the country was before I became the President? You don't want to return to that time, don't you?" People in Russia want higher salary (median salary is $500/month) and reasonable mortgage interest rates (now it can be as high as 12%), not more democracy. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Russia#Transition_to_market_economy_.281991.E2.80.9398.29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Russia#Transition_t...
dragonwriter 9y ago
The Russian regime doesn't want Western liberal democracy because it's incompatible with the self-sustaining kleptocratic autocracy that they are running. Individual Russian people may or may not want Western liberal democracy for any of a variety of reasons (they “not” side in part driven by regime propaganda), but those preferences are not controlling regime actions.
baybal2 9y ago
No, double digits of KGB and CPSU staff had bank accounts abroad just like Chinese CCP members do now. And more power, means more money for them, just like usual. To disrupt Russian political establishment, you do same things you do to disrupt criminal gangs. Plain and simple. Gathering all of NATO's paratroopers and sending them to Moscow will work too, but at a bigger expense