Aleksandr Dugin, 'Putin's Brain,' Struggles to Justify Russia's War in Ukraine as Elite Consensus Fractures

Aleksandr Dugin, the Russian philosopher whose 'neo-Eurasianism' ideology earned him the label 'Putin's Brain,' appeared unable to defend the war in Ukraine during a recent interview with Russian social-media influencer Ksenia Sobchak, descending into bizarre musings about post-war Russia becoming a rural, neo-ancient ruin. His stumbling performance is being read by observers as a symptom of a wider ideological exhaustion among the war's supporters in Moscow. Author and Russia analyst Mikhail Zygar told The Atlantic that wealthy and powerful Russians who once privately backed the war now describe it as having reached a 'dead end.' Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian industrial infrastructure, combined with a casualty toll estimated at over one million killed or wounded, have made the gap between Kremlin messaging and lived reality increasingly difficult to paper over. Dugin's interview, in which he also made unrelated attacks on surfing and the beloved Russian cartoon character Cheburashka, is seen as a sign that pro-war ideologues have run out of coherent narratives to offer the Russian public.