Alexander Dugin is a Russian philosopher, nationalist writer and political researcher described as “Putin’s brain.” Fluent in 8 languages, he studied aviation at the Moscow Institute before changing his course to philosophy, political science and sociology. On the evening of August 20, 2022, Dugin lost his daughter and press secretary Daria after her car exploded on the outskirts of Moscow. According to investigations, Dugin was supposed to get into the car that exploded, but got into another car at the last moment. 

Dugin believes in the concept of a new Russia, which means “the great Russian nation regains its strength by returning to its conservative values.” He used this concept to justify control of areas historically subject to the Soviet Union, such as the 2014 annexation of Crimea and Russia's war on Ukraine to prevent the expansion of Washington's influence. Birth and upbringing Alexander Glivich Dugin was born on January 7, 1962 in the capital, Moscow, to a father who was a general in the Military Intelligence Service of the Soviet General Staff, and a mother who worked as a doctor. His father left the family when he was three, but continued to take good care of him. Dugin married the Russian activist Evgenia Debryanskaya, and they had their son Artur, then he married the philosopher Natalia Melentieva, and they had a daughter, Daria. Study and scientific training Dugin began studying aviation at the Moscow Institute in 1979, but later changed his course to philosophy to graduate with a master's degree in philosophy, after which he obtained a doctorate in political science and sociology. Dugin is fluent in 8 languages, and says he knows the basics of the Arabic language, but he is not very familiar with it. Dugin attributes his philosophical and scientific origin to his acquaintance with the Islamic world and the Azerbaijani philosopher Heydar Jamal. 

political and scientific experience After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Dugin joined the opposition and participated in the popular uprising that contributed to the overthrow of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, whom he considered an "authoritarian totalitarian." In return, he declared his support for President Vladimir Putin after he came to power. He analyzed the reason for the fall of the Soviet Union in its dependence on the "land civilization" in contrast to the civilization of the sea and the Atlantic, which the Americans and Europeans alike worked on, and not because of the Cold War. Dugin has been described as the mastermind behind the annexation of Crimea, for which the states included his name on the US sanctions list in 2014 after occupying the island. In 2019, Dugin engaged in a discussion with French thinker Bernard-Henri Lévy on the topic of what he called the "crisis of capitalism and the rebellion of nationalist populism".