Thanks to @barneypiccolo@lemm.ee for the following summary and turning me on to the linked excellent summary of the book.

Foundations of Geopolitics was published in 1997 by Aleksandr Dugin. It outlines how Russia can become the world’s dominant superpower without warfare. It is taught in Russia’s military officers school, Putin keeps a copy in his office, and it is Russia’s geopolitical playbook. Dugin is still closely involved with Putin and Russian intelligence, and so was his daughter, who was murdered in a car bombing that was likely meant for him.

Under the section for the United States, it says:

Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States and Canada to fuel instability and separatism against neoliberal globalist Western hegemony, such as, for instance, provoke “Afro-American racists” to create severe backlash against the rotten political state of affairs in the current present-day system of the United States and Canada. Russia should “introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social, and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics”.

  • realitista@lemmy.worldOP
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    1 day ago

    The US has done many of these things, it’s true. A few differences IMO are:

    1. The US of the last century has had no ambitions to conquer countries militarily for the purpose of ursurping their land. These kinds of wars are the ones that cause the most death and destruction as we see in Ukraine.
    2. The US doesn’t require nearly as many “puppet regimes” as Russia does. The US has had some in the past, but generally in most cases are happy as long as there are democracies in place. Russia requires near complete control of their puppet states like Belarus and Ukraine when they controlled it.
    3. The US doesn’t directly commit genocide as we see happening in Ukraine or in almost every terriory Russia has ever brought under it’s rule.
    4. Countries allied with the US generally become more prosperous and free, whereas those under the Russian umbrella tend to experience the opposite.

    So, given the choice between being under US hegemony or Russian imperialism, I personally would choose to ally myself with the US. Though, as a resident of the EU, in a country formerly a Soviet sattelite state, I would prefer to be beholden to neither. In a small country as this one, I would prefer to have a strong united EU with it’s own strong military.

    • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
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      1 hour ago
      1. Verifiably wrong

      2. Laughably wrong

      3. Completely wrong

      4. Delusional

      You are either an incurable moron or a state department psyop

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      Honestly a strong democratic EU would help keep everyone in check. The only problem really is that powerful countries tend to abuse that power overseas.

      • realitista@lemmy.worldOP
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        1 day ago

        While the US isn’t doing what it should be in Gaza, I don’t think it’s fair to lay the blame entirely on the USA. The USA is not Israel and Israel certainly isn’t a US puppet state.

        On Iraq, it’s true. But at least they didn’t ethnically cleanse or attempt to annex the lands to make them permanent vassals like Russia does. Not good but still better than what happens when Russia gets involved.

        • join@lemmy.ml
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          1 day ago

          Saying Israel is not the US is like saying the Ukrainian separatists between 2014 and 2022 where not Russia. Israel gets its weapons, money and international support directly from the US. Without the US Israel would not exist in its current state, and definitely would not be doing what it’s doing right now in Gaza. The US fought the Houthis to defend Israel, and without the US many many more Iranian rockets would have hit. And even if all of this was not the case and Israel was just a normal ally, the difference in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine vs Israels genocide against Palestinians still proves the point.

          • realitista@lemmy.worldOP
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            1 day ago

            The Ukrainian separatists (little green men) were literally Russian soldiers, complete with marching papers, so that’s not an apt comparison. There are no US troops involved on the ground in this conflict.

            The US sells arms to a lot of countries, as does Russia. A better comparison would be China, who Russia sells arms to, but has little control over policy-wise due to being another well armed rich nuclear power.

            • join@lemmy.ml
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              1 day ago

              What little green men do you think man the aircraft carriers, shoot down the missiles, or build the pier that was then used to kill civilians?

              The US army is actively involved on every front of this war/genocide. Not to speak of the intelligence that they are probably providing.

              And yes if you micro optimize the goal posts long enough there is bound to be a difference between Russian involvement in Ukraine before 2022 and Israel. But that is besides the point, the question is: would the Palestinian genocide be happening without direct US support? And the answer is irrefutably no.

              • realitista@lemmy.worldOP
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                1 day ago

                American soldiers have not been used in any combat in Gaza, nor have the US carriers. So again, not a valid comparison to Ukraine.

                You could draw the parallel with Russian weapons being used by India against Pakistan, but you could hardly argue that Russia was directly fighting a war with Pakistan there.

                • join@lemmy.ml
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                  1 day ago

                  Would the Palestinian genocide be happening without US support?

                  • realitista@lemmy.worldOP
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                    1 day ago

                    That’s not the comparison you made. You made a comparison with a directly invading army.