Another controversial statement questioning the independence of post-Soviet countries has come out of Moscow. Philosopher and political analyst Alexander Dugin, often described as an ideologue of the so-called “Russian world,” openly denied the right to independent statehood for several countries, including Uzbekistan, during a recent public appearance.
According to the head of the International Eurasian Movement, the very concept of sovereignty for former Soviet republics has allegedly exhausted itself. In his view, the emerging “new model” of global order leaves no room for independent national states as they exist today.
In a fragment of his speech that quickly circulated online, Dugin listed specific countries whose independence he believes will be impossible in the future. Alongside Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan was also included. The rhetoric of the director of the Ilyin Higher Political School was uncompromising and left no space for alternative interpretations.
Dugin asserted that the era of separate nations has come to an end. He stated bluntly: “Nothing sovereign can exist in this new model. That’s it. Sovereignty is over. National states belong to the past. This is garbage.” Such remarks effectively dismiss more than three decades of independent development across the region.
The speaker’s profile gives these statements particular weight. Alexander Dugin is not merely a marginal public commentator but a figure who has been perceived internationally as an influential thinker. In 2014, Foreign Policy magazine included him in its list of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers.”
His ideas, often marked by radicalism, have found resonance within certain circles of the Russian political establishment. Dugin’s foundational work, The Foundations of Geopolitics, which outlines Russia’s imperial ambitions, was for a long time used as a учебное пособие at the Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.