60 minutes overtime i'm supporter of putin so i'm i'm transmitting the will of our of
conservative society of russian identity i'm not formulating this individually alexander dugan is
a russian political philosopher who's been called the putin whisperer he's got vladimir putin's ear
and he's really influential in shaping russian policy at the highest level you are known as
putin's rasputin and i've even seen putin's brain so he has listened to you in the past the base of
this affirmation is precisely the correspondence between what putin does and what i always say i'm
shachar baran and i produce for leslie stahl at 60 minutes in 2017 we shot an interview with dugan
as part of a story we were reporting about the russian disinformation campaign after the 2016
presidential elections we ended up not using the interview sometimes that happens when we interview
more people than we can fit in the broadcast but i never forgot the interview with alexander dugan
especially after russia invaded ukraine in 1997 dugan wrote a book called the foundations of
geopolitics which um we've heard has been very influential in the russian military it
may have even been taught in their academy so i wondered what in his world view might
illuminate what putin is doing now and his goal in this war right right now in ukraine so in 1997 you
wrote a book called foundations of geopolitics and in it you talked about how russia should
return to being a global superpower talk about that explain that i always believed and i believe
in the future greatness of russia because russia was always and tried to be a
superpower it's our dream not to rule the world but to be recognized as one center of decisions
with others so our dream is not unipolarity russian really polarity it is the dream of um
decent multipalary to be one pole among the other not to be the unique paul that is very important
and i consider a return to the greatness or return to the status of superpower not as being the first
first power in the world but one of the most important decision makers and in order to do that
i think that military power and weapon including nuclear weapon and the other kind of weapon is not
enough we need to use diplomatic means and more than that we need a kind of spiritual
sovereignty we need to be free and liberated not only physically as a state as a people but as well
revival of russian logos of russian spirit of russian identity that is much more important
this russian identity is a key component of an ultra-nationalist ideology dugan of spouses
called eurasianism because russia is both part of europe and asia dugan thinks russia should
embrace this geopolitical uniqueness and dominate both spheres dugan has set eurasianism in direct
opposition to the west and to liberalism in his 1997 book dugan wrote that for russia to
rebuild its power globally it would need to use disinformation destabilization and annexation he
said one of the targets for russian annexation should be ukraine endugan's mind an independent
ukraine stands in the way of russia becoming a transcontinental superpower but that wasn't the
only prescription alexander dugan had for putin back then here's what he told us in 2017. let
me ask you something else that you wrote about in your book you proposed that russia annex ukraine
you said that russia should encourage britain to leave the eu brexit you suggested that russia
make iran an ally now it does sound as if mr putin is following your blueprint
all of these things right out of your book and he's doing it that was the same thing that they
have said introducing me in the john hopkins institution 20 years ago in washington so uh
i i agree there is a similarity more than that i i but i have
i have um developed in my vision eurasian vision that is much more
that is larger than what you have mentioned that was only first steps in order but he
followed your first steps he followed exactly the first step let's take too long so he is in the
absolute position of absolute power because we are living in the monarchy society from below so that
is not putin who uh imposes on us monarchism or authoritarian rule we demand from him to be much
more authoritarian that he is so he a little bit disappoints us because it's it take too long uh
so but he did the first steps first step in the 17 years so in the 17 year you could change the the
the globe change changed he listened to you but he's going too slow go slow yes