POLITICS: ISLAM AND EURASIANISM
8. EURASIANISTS VERSUS EURASIONISTS
NOTE OF CORRECTION. At the end of item 3 in RAS No. 9 there was a note about a new Eurasian Party of Russia led by Alexander Dugin and Abd al-Wahed Niyazov. This version was based on a misunderstanding. A number of people have written to point out that Dugin and Niyazov actually head two different organizations with slightly different names. Dugin's pro-Putin Eurasia Movement was created in response to Niyazov's semi-opposition Eurasian Party, and there is considerable personal hostility and ideological disagreement between Niyazov and Dugin. The following item from Mark Sedgwick (American University in Cairo) will hopefully clarify matters further.
Alexander Dugin's Eurasia Party, established in 2002 on the basis of his Eurasia Movement, is quite distinct from Abd al-Wahid Niyazov's Eurasian Party (with n at the end). According to some, the Eurasia Movement was in part a response to what Dugin saw as Niyazov's attempt to "usurp" Dugin's own ideology.
The Eurasia Movement is made up of some of Dugin's old associates, but has some interesting new elements, including Mufti Talgat Taj al-Din (Talgat Tadzhuddinov, 1948-), the Shaykh al-Islam of Russia, appointed under Soviet auspices to a position created by Catherine II, and still going strong (though he has many rivals nowadays).
There are plausible rumors of close relations with the Kremlin, and also of significant financial support from FSB sources. Dugin however remains independent, for example criticizing President Putin's relations with the West in the wake of September 11, 2001. For Dugin, the planes that destroyed the twin towers were "the swallows of the Apocalypse," and Putin would have been better advised to look to the solidarity of the Eurasian bloc in a conflict that, according to Dugin, is really between America and the rest of the world.
The Eurasia Movement is active in attempts to resolve the Chechen crisis, with a leading role being taken by Dugin's second in command, Petr Suslov, a former colonel in the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). The Eurasia Movement also has a following among settlers of Russian origin in Israel, including Avigdor Eskin, famous for his apparently effective death curse on Prime Minister Rabin (for which he was sentenced to four months in prison). These settlers, however, seem to be leftovers from Dugin's earlier radicalism. Dugin and his associates have made a successful move towards the political mainstream, abandoning the red-brown alliance as usless, rather as Dugin once abandoned Pamyat.
The transformation of the Eurasia Movement into the Eurasia Party implies an intention to register the new party for participation in the forthcoming elections. If Dugin manages to attract Kremlin support for this, we may be hearing even more of him in the future.
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