Russia has been in the news a lot lately. Secret Russian phone call this, Russian ambassador dead that, and so on. With the specter of Russia looming in American politics, it might be prudent to pause our breathless coverage of Trump giving ambassador Kislyak a reach-around and find out what exactly Russia wants. You know, what their goals are, their aspirations, what they pin on their vision boards. It surely isn't as simple as "Mek those Amyerican kepetalist dogs syuffer." If only we had something that lays out their strategies and objectives, like a handbook of some sort.

Well, it turns out we kinda do. Kinda.

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The Foundations Of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future Of Russia, written in 1997, is a book by charming debutante Aleksandr Dugin. He's a quirky guy who deserves a bit of background.

Aleksandr Dugin

Saruman the Drab.

Dugin, who effortlessly pulls off the sexy Rasputin look, is a Russian political scientist who has a few slightly fascist viewpoints. Such as his 1997 article "Fascism -- Borderless And Red," in which he uses adorable color metaphors to excitedly predict a fascist Russia that is "... not a faded, brownish-pinkish national capitalism, but the blinding dawn of a new Russian Revolution, fascism -- borderless as our lands, and red as our blood." And in case you think he means some watered-down version of fascism, he clarifies, "genuine, true, radically revolutionary and consistent, fascist fascism." The most fascisty fascism that ever fascisted a fascist.