A Pan-Eurasian Alliance and Pax Russica

It seems it has become very popular in many parts of the world to form broad political alliances based upon not much more than mutual distrust and distaste of Washington’s policies. Hugo Chavez should probably sent the Russian nationalist Aleksander Dugin a cease and desist letter for IP infringement… Megan Stack writing in the Los Angeles Times: dugin090508.jpg

Writer, political activist and father figure for contemporary Russian nationalism, Aleksandr Dugin is the founder of Russia’s International Eurasian Movement and a popular theorist among Russia’s hard-line elite. He envisions a strategic bloc comprising the former Soviet Union and the Middle East to rival the U.S.-dominated Atlantic alliance. The Times interviewed Dugin this week at his Moscow office, a room draped with flags bearing the slogan “Pax Russica.” The following are excerpts. What is your assessment of Russia’s place in the world now, and how should Russia be behaving with respect to the West? First of all, I advocate strongly a multipolar construction of the world. I think that the pretension of the United States to be the unique pole of the world . . . is completely wrong, immoral and unacceptable by the other great centers of power. We support the creation of great space, a few great spaces, instead of only one point of decision, the United States’ decision. We think Russia should be in the vanguard of this process. We consider — not only myself, not only I, but our political chiefs — we consider that in Georgia, [President Mikheil] Saakashvili has committed not only a moral crime, but also he tested what is behind the Russian words, behind the Russian protests against American domination. They wanted to test up to which point is this only words, and what Russia could oppose directly, in concrete acts.