‘Have you been to the monuments to Minin and Pozharsky in Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow?’
‘Marina organises the dance festival in Nizhny. We all watched Alexander Dugin on programmes like Vremya and Chto de-lat.’
‘Does he make good viewing?’
‘Well, when they let him speak. He used to appear on Moment Istiny and Russkiy vzglyad, too! The Eurasianists are right about some things, like the United States and the EU wanting to establish new states ranging from Kosovo-style NATO protectorates to Islamic emirates from the Black to the Caspian Sea. That is why they sustained a military presence in Afghanistan and threatened Iran, to keep control over energy resources, while denying Russia access to the Mediterranean. The response was that we seized Crimea. By overrunning Western Ukraine, they further weaken and fragment the Russian state, challenge our dominance over the Eurasian heartland, run arms, deal in narcotics, and encourage migrants.’
‘Have you read Dugin’s Fourth Political Theory?’
‘Yes, but you know I’m unsure about some of Dugin’s positions. At first we were all very excited about the Evraziia Youth Movement. They had forty or more offices in Russia and ten or so internationally. He seemed to be influential with Putin, but all this talk of Arctogaia and Hyperborea was lost on many. Sergey Glazyev, for example, says the Eurasianist ideology amounts to one simple idea—we are all tied to a common historical fate, and we need to build a common future while respecting each other’s sovereignty and observing the principles of mutual benefit, emphasising our historical kinship. This is what differentiates us from EU expansion. The EU practises a methodology of double standards, applying force, fraud, and political technologies. Unlike both Glazyev and Dugin, I believe in a European ethnic identity and am against Russia’s multicultural imperialism.’ Tom saw how these fundamental differences troubled the young guy standing in front of him.
‘I remember an interview Dugin did in Elementi in 1995 with the former Iranian Ambassador to the Vatican, Muhammad Masjd Jamei, about how the Orthodox and Muslim worlds share common problems and common enemies. “With the fall of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, Western militarists are attempting to destroy the last few remainders of national, cultural, and religious independence. From their point of view, Islam and Orthodoxy are the essence of a power bloc whose existence is incompatible with their plans. It is for this reason that such efforts are expended on the weakening or even the destruction of these two religions”.’
‘I do like Dugin’s alter ego Hans Ziver’s Tribute to the the History of the Moscow Underground and that verse from “Moscow 1982”:
‘Ha, have you ever read, It’s Me, Eddie, by Eduard Limonov?’
‘No, is it good?’
‘Very different. He also wrote Memoir of a Russian Punk, The Wild Girl, and The Other Russia.’
‘I’m familiar with his politics but don’t know his fiction.’
‘Then you are missing something, my friend, many of the people here tonight were on the Dissenter’s March in 2007 when he was detained by the authorities. Others fought with the Fratria Movement at the Iberian Gate in 2010. Some are White Rex activists, others are National Bolsheviks. Danila, over there is a big admirer of Tesak. Sasha, his brother, is a member of the Patriots of Russia Party, the group who took over Pionerskaya Square in 2011.’
‘And Limonov was arrested at the Dissenter’s March, right?’
‘Yes. But when he was an émigré in the States, he was heavily influenced by Lou Reed and Charles Bukowski. After a period in Paris, he returned to the Motherland and founded an incendiary political news-sheet called Limonka, you would say, hand grenade.’
‘Original!’
‘So original it was said he was disseminating illegal and immoral information!’
‘And was there any truth in the charge?’
‘Well, he was imprisoned in 2001 for terrorism and trading in illegal weapons!’
‘And would you ever do that?’
‘Do what? Organise an armed revolt in northern Kazakhstan?’
‘Get involved with armed groups, wherever?’
‘Look, Limonov’s National Bolshevik Party was banned by the Supreme Court but it changed into the Other Russia. Dugin was right when he said, “If the European New Right chooses us, that means it chooses the barbarian element… our people do not only go to meetings or fight at the barricades, they also go to real wars, for instance Moldova, or to Yugoslavia.” There are over sixty White Power bands in this country today. Their fan base has a lot of muscle. We are fans of Zyklon B and Bezumnye Usiliya. I saw Kolovrat’s open air concert in Bolotnaya Square. All of us attend rallies on National Unity Day.’
‘Arming the narod khoziain.’
‘The Master People.’ Nikkin was surprised. ‘I see you know some Russian.’
‘I believe in the Rossiki Natsiia.’
Nikki raised a toast. ‘To the Russkii Dom!’
‘The Russian home’, Tom echoed with a clink of his glass.
• Suicide bombers kill 196 and injure 317 in sporadic attacks on the Moscow Metro;
• A government report which concludes that drug remittances fund over 2 million Azers living in Russia is suppressed in the public interest;
• The last Yazidis of northwestern Iraq, inheritors of ancient pre-Islamic traditions, are finally hunted down and exterminated;
• Jews and Muslims come together in the shadow of the Dome of the Rock in a show of public solidarity against world-wide racism;
• CIA and Mossad operatives are killed in action in eastern Ukraine;
• In Baku, where medieval mosques sit side-by-side with dilapidated Soviet apartment blocks and new glass office towers, gun-running, narcotics, and human trafficking becomes the motor of the economy through Tabriz, Samarkand, and down towards Kabul;
• Central Asian oil and gas producers provide free energy to Israel under terms negotiated by the World Bank.
They chatted over bliny filled with honey about a Russky Verdikt campaign to free Yevgenia Khasis from the Mordvinian camps. ‘She is our Sabine D’Orlac!’ Nikita became animated. ‘An icon for people like Vladimir Kvachkov’s People’s Liberation Front.’ Ekaterina pulled away from her crowd, introducing a young man with sky-grey eyes.
‘Vladimir is a writer’, she said. ‘But now he works for Ernst and Young.’
‘I do accounting ledgers’, he added.
Tom feigned interest to indulge Ekaterina. ‘What sort of stuff do you write?’
‘Political.’ He thrust a sheaf of papers into Tom’s hands. ‘This is an English copy. You can read if you want.’
‘You wrote all this?’
‘Katja says I write more in European taste. She helps me translate into French and British.’ Tom looked admiringly at her.
‘You must have great faith in his talent?’
She blushed. ‘I have confidence’, she said, grabbing Vladimir by the arm and giving him an affectionate squeeze.
‘What’s it called?’ Tom asked before turning the cover.
‘Dog’, Vladimir replied. ‘It’s about times when I was a child.’