Who is Alexander Dougin?

– Dugin, 60, has long advocated the unification of Russian-speaking and other territories into a vast new Russian empire, to which he wants to include Ukraine.

– In his 1997 book, “The Foundations of Geopolitics: Russia’s Geopolitical Future”, Dugin sharply criticized American influence in Eurasia and called on Russia to rebuild its own authority in the region and advocated breaking the territory of other nations.

– This book was on army reading lists, but there is no evidence that Dugin ever had a direct influence on Russian foreign policy.

– Dugin’s influence over President Vladimir Putin has been the subject of speculation, with some Russian observers saying his influence is significant and many calling it minimal. He has no official connection with the Kremlin.

– The United States imposed sanctions on Dugin in 2015 for being “responsible for or complicit in actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

– In a March statement, the US Treasury said its Eurasian Youth Union is actively recruiting people with military and combat experience to fight on behalf of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine .

– “Dugin controls Geopolitica, a website that serves as a platform for Russian ultra-nationalists to spread disinformation and propaganda targeting the West and other audiences,” the US Treasury said.

– In 2015, Dugin was quoted as saying by gazeta.ru that his addition to the US sanctions list was “unprecedented” and that sanctions were imposed for “intellectual activity that does not violate any law”.

– Dugin did not immediately respond to questions emailed to him on Sunday at an address listed on the website of the International Eurasian Movement he founded.

POLITICAL MOVEMENTS

– Dugin’s 1997 book increased his notoriety. In the early 1990s, he co-founded the National Bolshevik Party (NBP), which vehemently espoused anti-centrist views and whose largely red flag featured a black hammer and sickle at its center.

– Dugin left the NBP about a decade before it was declared an “extremist organization” in 2007 and its activities banned in Russia.

– He went on to found political and social movements centered on decidedly anti-Western ideas for the future of Eurasia.

– Dugin worked a brief stint as editor of Tsargrad TV, a pro-Kremlin Orthodox Christian channel owned by businessman Konstantin Malofeev. Malofeev was sanctioned by the United States and the European Union in 2014 on charges he funded pro-Moscow separatists fighting in Ukraine, which he denies.

– Writing on the Tsargrad website in May, Dugin said Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine required immediate “patriotic reforms”.

– He wrote that a “new, eternal, true and deep Russia” should be established to attract the Ukrainian people.

– “Ukraine can become an integral and organic part of it”, he wrote. “The Ukrainians must understand that we invite them to create this new great power. As well as the Belarusians, the Kazakhs, the Armenians, but also the Azerbaijanis and the Georgians, and all those who not only were and are with us, but who will be too.”

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Nick Macfie)