Marlene Laruelle – Eurasianism and the European Far Right: Reshaping the Europe–Russia Relationship

Summary

The 2014 Ukrainian crisis has highlighted the pro-Russia stances of some European countries, such as Hungary and Greece, and of some European parties, mostly on the far-right of the political spectrum. They see themselves as victims of the EU “technocracy” and liberal moral values, and look for new allies to denounce the current “mainstream” and its austerity measures. These groups found new and unexpected allies in Russia. As seen from the Kremlin, those who denounce Brussels and its submission to U.S. interests are potential allies of a newly re-assertive Russia that sees itself as the torchbearer of conservative values. Predating the Kremlin’s networks, the European connections of Alexander Dugin, the fascist geopolitician and proponent of neo-Eurasianism, paved the way for a new pan-European illiberal ideology based on an updated reinterpretation of fascism. Although Dugin and the European far-right belong to the same ideological world and can be seen as two sides of the same coin, the alliance between Putin’s regime and the European far-right is more a marriage of convenience than one of true love. This unique book examines the European far-right’s connections with Russia and untangles this puzzle by tracing the ideological origins and individual paths that have materialized in this permanent dialogue between Russia and Europe.

Table of contents

• Introduction: Marlene Laruelle
• Chapter 1: Dangerous Liaisons? Eurasianism, European Far Right, and Putin’s Russia
  Marlene Laruelle
• Part I: Alexander Dugin’s Trajectory: Mediating European Far Right to Russia
  • Chapter 2: Alexander Dugin and the West European New Right, 1989–1994
    Anton Shekhovtsov
  • Chapter 3: Moscow State University’s Department of Sociology and the Climate of Opinion in Post-Soviet Russia
    Vadim Rossman
• Part II: France, Italy, and Spain: Dugin’s European Cradles
  • Chapter 4: A Long-Lasting Friendship. Alexander Dugin and the French Radical Right
    Jean-Yves Camus
  • Chapter 5: From Evola to Dugin: The Neo-Eurasianist Connection in Italy
    Giovanni Savino
  • Chapter 6: Arriba Eurasia? The Difficult Establishment of Neo-Eurasianism in Spain
    Nicolas Lebourg
• Part III: Turkey, Hungary, and Greece: Dugin’s New Conquests
  • Chapter 7: “Failed Exodus”: Dugin’s Networks in Turkey
    Vügar İmanbeyli
  • Chapter 8: Deciphering Eurasianism in Hungary: Narratives, Networks, and Lifestyles
    Umut Korkut and Emel Akçali
  • Chapter 9: The Dawning of Europe and Eurasia? The Greek Golden Dawn and its Transnational Links
    Sofia Tipaldou
• Part IV: Conclusions: The European Far Right at Moscow’s Service?
  • Chapter 10: Far-Right Election Observation Monitors in the Service of the Kremlin’s Foreign Policy
    Anton Shekhovtsov