Yep. Putin doesn't seem to rush into anything anyway. It's become a cliché by now, but he is a chess player. I'm sure he'll get his revenge after it's been a lengthy time in the freezer. All this assumes, of course, that it wasn't some kind of inside FSB job. Let's not open that can of worms!
Can't comment on Dugin, but this is getting more attention than when the boyfriend of the Governor of Georgia's daughter was blown up. I bet the Governor of Georgia paid attention.
Dugin is a serous thinker. He is a natural ally of those of us in the West who think liberalism has exhausted itself but who are not seduced by the shopworn ideological alternatives of Communism and Fascism. No one who spends an hour reading Dugin can classify him as Nazi or Fascist. His views on the West are nuanced. The post is disappointing.
Dugin found himself on the same list as ~60 other pro Russian propogandists like Scott Ritter, Rand Paul, & Glen Grenwald. Shifty Schiff had a shit eating grin on the Sunday shows trying to spin it lik Pres. Putin has so many political enemies, that its a wonder it doesnt happen more frequently. Almost if queing up the next target for the Clown hIt squAd.
My gut feeling with the timing is the Ukrainians showing they have a long reach. Perhaps tit for tat for a Ukrainian oligarch that got killed recently by a Russian missile? Ukrain has been showing they can do attacks outside their normal area, such as Crimea recently.
But, the way the minor relationship with Putin is being played up, I’m suspicious…
I can’t comment intelligently on Russian thought re: Russia given my total lack of familiarity with their alphabet, let alone language. For what it’s worth, though, Russians With Attitude on Twitter has covered this event and made the point that most Russians don’t know who Dugin is, and that Putin might have met him a couple of times after his own political views were fully formed.
The big takeaways are 1) Ukrainian nationalists seem to have taken him as a bete noir that they believe is the reason Putin wants to defend the Crimea and Donbass Republics, and 2) this bombing within blocks of the Russian White House could be the precursor to a terror campaign like that Russia faced in the 2000’s.
In my opinion and with all due respect, This post is not worthy of the work you do here Mark, and I believe it is badly mistaken. I wonder at it's derisiveness. I may have been the one to suggest Dugin to you before in a comment way back, I did so well before the special operation and in a context not concentrated on Russia or Putin or Russian politics. I think there is more worth considering in Dugin's thought than whether he was influenced by Heidegger. And it is contrary to your stated method to throw the baby out with the bathwater in this manner. I wonder what you make of Michael Millerman and whether you think anyone who considers the ideas of Heidegger a Nazi for doing so?
I do not mean to promote millerman or Dugin I simply mean to point out that both are public figures and that they should not be wholly defined by whether "public opinion" or what you read on Wikipedia ties them to Putin or ties them to Nazism.
Hey, Dugin's ties to Nazi ideology are not a matter of "public opinion". It's a matter of public record. I think I can read Wikipedia critically. I doubt you can think critically.
"My own first hand exposure to Dugin’s thinking (in translation) is relatively slight". You want to base your opinions on your critical reading of Wikipedia, I won't stop you. I will respond to your insult however by inferring that, as a longtime reader of yours who "can't think critically" I must, in your mind, be someone who requires the help of someone like you to do his critical thinking for him, and letting you know that brother, you can lay that burden down.
There is little reason to think that Dugin has discarded his flirtations with Nazism (it is perhaps revealing that, in Foundations of Geopolitics, he urges Russia to form an “axis” with Germany and Japan as the core of its strategy). Nor has he moved on from his occult obsessions, despite a nominal conversion to Russian Orthodoxy—which he has tried to syncretize with various neopagan and esoteric teachings (including the work of Aleister Crowley, a reputed Satanist). A lengthy two-part essay he wrote in 2019 for the Izborsk Club, a “socially conservative” website he cofounded, returns to his old favorite Julius Evola and then segues into an abstruse discussion of Hindu and Zoroastrian eschatology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Evola
Which brings us to another startling aspect of the Dugin persona: his fascination with the apocalyptic. The Fourth Political Theory at one point flatly states that the new theory and practice the book seeks to formulate is “invalid” if it doesn’t “bring about the End of Time.” A video of a 2012 Dugin lecture at Moscow’s New University shows him offering an eclectic stew of ideas—the Christian apocalypse, the dark Kali Yuga cycle from Hindu mysticism, the French metaphysician René Guénon, global warming—to make the case we are “obviously” living in the end times and that the end of the world is something we should actively desire.
First, by now most of you have heard that Alexander Dugin’s daughter has been murdered in a car bomb. The target was clearly Dugin himself. All I want to say at this point is that Dugin never was the “‘Russian world’ ideologue“ as RT so stupidly wrote. (The same goes for another supposed “ideologue of the Russian world” German Sterligov).
How many times did you hear Putin quoting Dugin? If anything, Putin’s ideological influences would be Ivan Ilyin and Alexander Solzhenitsyn, not Dugin.
Dugin was much more of a big thing in the West, not in Russia where most key players never took him seriously or, even less so, were influenced by him.
FWIW, my memory is that Brennan and other CIA officials and ex-officials have repeatedly denied that the agency had anything to do with Crossfire Hurricane - that CH was strictly a Bureau operation. Many observers have speculated about Strzok's provenance, including speculation that he is really CIA. Many observers have also speculated that CIA's denials are disingenuous and that, in fact, the CH/Russia Collusion Hoax was run by Brennan. If Strzok is really CIA through and through that would lend credence, atleast to this observer, to the possibility/likelihood that the government side of CH/Russia Collusion Hoax was ultimately run by Brennan. As for the significance, I would submit that, at a minimum, transparency and truth regarding this dismal event would be 'significant'.
Brennan could not give the necessary authorizations--only FBI officials could. To open investigations, to use certain techniques, to sign off on applications for actions only the FBI can conduct. CIA has no authority to run CI operations within the US. If this were really an illegal CIA op you would not be seeing the FBI going to such lengths to pretend to legally obtain a FISA--just one example.
It's entirely possible that Strzok could have occupied a position at CIA for a time with CIA approval, essentially undercover, but would still have been a FBI employee.
Some of this may be of general interest, but I don't believe it makes any difference. Any wrongdoing by the CIA would have been within its authority. Probably to do with overseas ops.
You are undoubtedly right as far as CIA and FBI statutory and regulatory authority is concerned. We may disagree, however, regarding whether they were playing by the rules. We may disagree regarding who was working with Obama and Clinton (and who knows who else) and 'directing' the operation. A lot of us think it was Brennan.
I'm not saying the CIA played by the rules nor am I saying that the FBi was the only actor against Trump. "Playing by the rules" is a matter of form, and everyone played by those rules--even to the extent of lying regarding the the matter underlying the form. I am saying that Brennan couldn't "direct" anyone in the FBI to do anything against the law and force them to do it. Without the FBI's full consent the Russia Hoax doesn't happen. It might be one thing if the FBI was fooled by Brennan and the Clinton gang--but they weren't. They knew--no later than January 2017--that the Russia Hoax was total BS. But they continued their effort to get Trump. I very much doubt that anyone will be able to show DoJ or CIA making material false statements--only erroneous legal interpretations. Those are never prosecuted.
Matters are different with regard to Clinton's false statements to the government, although as we saw with Sussmann, getting a DC jury to buy off on his false statements to the government isn't easy.
Yes. OTOH, our Western intel services have not shown themselves to be terribly sophisticated in their understanding of Russian politics and thinking so far.
Yep. Putin doesn't seem to rush into anything anyway. It's become a cliché by now, but he is a chess player. I'm sure he'll get his revenge after it's been a lengthy time in the freezer. All this assumes, of course, that it wasn't some kind of inside FSB job. Let's not open that can of worms!
Can't comment on Dugin, but this is getting more attention than when the boyfriend of the Governor of Georgia's daughter was blown up. I bet the Governor of Georgia paid attention.
Vlad probably wished the intended target would have met his demise, Dugin's death would be a big favor to Russia.
I suspect this is the case.
Dugin is a serous thinker. He is a natural ally of those of us in the West who think liberalism has exhausted itself but who are not seduced by the shopworn ideological alternatives of Communism and Fascism. No one who spends an hour reading Dugin can classify him as Nazi or Fascist. His views on the West are nuanced. The post is disappointing.
The comment is disappointing.
Dugin is a clown and so are you:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Evola
Dugin found himself on the same list as ~60 other pro Russian propogandists like Scott Ritter, Rand Paul, & Glen Grenwald. Shifty Schiff had a shit eating grin on the Sunday shows trying to spin it lik Pres. Putin has so many political enemies, that its a wonder it doesnt happen more frequently. Almost if queing up the next target for the Clown hIt squAd.
Cui bono? Who benefits?
My gut feeling with the timing is the Ukrainians showing they have a long reach. Perhaps tit for tat for a Ukrainian oligarch that got killed recently by a Russian missile? Ukrain has been showing they can do attacks outside their normal area, such as Crimea recently.
But, the way the minor relationship with Putin is being played up, I’m suspicious…
The Ukies may have a long reach, but the Russians have an even longer one.
I can’t comment intelligently on Russian thought re: Russia given my total lack of familiarity with their alphabet, let alone language. For what it’s worth, though, Russians With Attitude on Twitter has covered this event and made the point that most Russians don’t know who Dugin is, and that Putin might have met him a couple of times after his own political views were fully formed.
The big takeaways are 1) Ukrainian nationalists seem to have taken him as a bete noir that they believe is the reason Putin wants to defend the Crimea and Donbass Republics, and 2) this bombing within blocks of the Russian White House could be the precursor to a terror campaign like that Russia faced in the 2000’s.
Seems plausible.
In my opinion and with all due respect, This post is not worthy of the work you do here Mark, and I believe it is badly mistaken. I wonder at it's derisiveness. I may have been the one to suggest Dugin to you before in a comment way back, I did so well before the special operation and in a context not concentrated on Russia or Putin or Russian politics. I think there is more worth considering in Dugin's thought than whether he was influenced by Heidegger. And it is contrary to your stated method to throw the baby out with the bathwater in this manner. I wonder what you make of Michael Millerman and whether you think anyone who considers the ideas of Heidegger a Nazi for doing so?
https://thallosnetwork.com/michael-millerman/
I do not mean to promote millerman or Dugin I simply mean to point out that both are public figures and that they should not be wholly defined by whether "public opinion" or what you read on Wikipedia ties them to Putin or ties them to Nazism.
Hey, Dugin's ties to Nazi ideology are not a matter of "public opinion". It's a matter of public record. I think I can read Wikipedia critically. I doubt you can think critically.
"My own first hand exposure to Dugin’s thinking (in translation) is relatively slight". You want to base your opinions on your critical reading of Wikipedia, I won't stop you. I will respond to your insult however by inferring that, as a longtime reader of yours who "can't think critically" I must, in your mind, be someone who requires the help of someone like you to do his critical thinking for him, and letting you know that brother, you can lay that burden down.
Dugin is a clown, and so are you:
https://www.thebulwark.com/aleksandr-dugin-putin-brain-russian-prophet-bizarre/
There is little reason to think that Dugin has discarded his flirtations with Nazism (it is perhaps revealing that, in Foundations of Geopolitics, he urges Russia to form an “axis” with Germany and Japan as the core of its strategy). Nor has he moved on from his occult obsessions, despite a nominal conversion to Russian Orthodoxy—which he has tried to syncretize with various neopagan and esoteric teachings (including the work of Aleister Crowley, a reputed Satanist). A lengthy two-part essay he wrote in 2019 for the Izborsk Club, a “socially conservative” website he cofounded, returns to his old favorite Julius Evola and then segues into an abstruse discussion of Hindu and Zoroastrian eschatology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Evola
Which brings us to another startling aspect of the Dugin persona: his fascination with the apocalyptic. The Fourth Political Theory at one point flatly states that the new theory and practice the book seeks to formulate is “invalid” if it doesn’t “bring about the End of Time.” A video of a 2012 Dugin lecture at Moscow’s New University shows him offering an eclectic stew of ideas—the Christian apocalypse, the dark Kali Yuga cycle from Hindu mysticism, the French metaphysician René Guénon, global warming—to make the case we are “obviously” living in the end times and that the end of the world is something we should actively desire.
https://thesaker.is/short-message-from-andrei/
Two quick messages:
First, by now most of you have heard that Alexander Dugin’s daughter has been murdered in a car bomb. The target was clearly Dugin himself. All I want to say at this point is that Dugin never was the “‘Russian world’ ideologue“ as RT so stupidly wrote. (The same goes for another supposed “ideologue of the Russian world” German Sterligov).
How many times did you hear Putin quoting Dugin? If anything, Putin’s ideological influences would be Ivan Ilyin and Alexander Solzhenitsyn, not Dugin.
Dugin was much more of a big thing in the West, not in Russia where most key players never took him seriously or, even less so, were influenced by him.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/return-peter-strzok-how-fired-fbi-official-making-case-against-himself
What would be the significance?
FWIW, my memory is that Brennan and other CIA officials and ex-officials have repeatedly denied that the agency had anything to do with Crossfire Hurricane - that CH was strictly a Bureau operation. Many observers have speculated about Strzok's provenance, including speculation that he is really CIA. Many observers have also speculated that CIA's denials are disingenuous and that, in fact, the CH/Russia Collusion Hoax was run by Brennan. If Strzok is really CIA through and through that would lend credence, atleast to this observer, to the possibility/likelihood that the government side of CH/Russia Collusion Hoax was ultimately run by Brennan. As for the significance, I would submit that, at a minimum, transparency and truth regarding this dismal event would be 'significant'.
As always, I am happy to be corrected.
"was run by Brennan"
Brennan could not give the necessary authorizations--only FBI officials could. To open investigations, to use certain techniques, to sign off on applications for actions only the FBI can conduct. CIA has no authority to run CI operations within the US. If this were really an illegal CIA op you would not be seeing the FBI going to such lengths to pretend to legally obtain a FISA--just one example.
It's entirely possible that Strzok could have occupied a position at CIA for a time with CIA approval, essentially undercover, but would still have been a FBI employee.
Some of this may be of general interest, but I don't believe it makes any difference. Any wrongdoing by the CIA would have been within its authority. Probably to do with overseas ops.
You are undoubtedly right as far as CIA and FBI statutory and regulatory authority is concerned. We may disagree, however, regarding whether they were playing by the rules. We may disagree regarding who was working with Obama and Clinton (and who knows who else) and 'directing' the operation. A lot of us think it was Brennan.
I'm not saying the CIA played by the rules nor am I saying that the FBi was the only actor against Trump. "Playing by the rules" is a matter of form, and everyone played by those rules--even to the extent of lying regarding the the matter underlying the form. I am saying that Brennan couldn't "direct" anyone in the FBI to do anything against the law and force them to do it. Without the FBI's full consent the Russia Hoax doesn't happen. It might be one thing if the FBI was fooled by Brennan and the Clinton gang--but they weren't. They knew--no later than January 2017--that the Russia Hoax was total BS. But they continued their effort to get Trump. I very much doubt that anyone will be able to show DoJ or CIA making material false statements--only erroneous legal interpretations. Those are never prosecuted.
Matters are different with regard to Clinton's false statements to the government, although as we saw with Sussmann, getting a DC jury to buy off on his false statements to the government isn't easy.
My belief as well. These provocations are, in the big scheme, pinpricks. But they won't be forgotten, which is why it's so stupid.
Yes. OTOH, our Western intel services have not shown themselves to be terribly sophisticated in their understanding of Russian politics and thinking so far.
Alas, Stephen Cohen is no longer around to enlighten us…