The document discusses the role of the alt-right movement in spreading disinformation and its connections to Russian strategist Alexander Dugin and his goals of destabilizing the United States. It describes how Dugin influenced the development of the alt-right in America through his writings on geopolitics and relationships with figures like Richard Spencer. The alt-right then used emerging social media and conspiratorial websites to propagate disinformation in line with Dugin's objectives, paving the way for the rise of the QAnon movement.

1. JRN 450 –
Disinformation
Alt-Right
• The Alt-Right
movement has been
eclipsed by QAnon in
the spread of
disinformation.
• But it provides a key
link to enabling QAnon
to establish itself and
absorb alt-right
disinformation tactics.

2. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• The Alt-Right is a “neo-fascist white supremacist movement that is
involved in violent extremism and shows signs of engagement in
extensive disinformation.” (Bevensee)
•

3. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• There are Russian connections, of course, headed by Alexander
Dugin. His 1997 book Foundations of Geopolitics set in place the
rationale for destabilizing the U.S. – and invading Ukraine.
• “Utilizing the geopolitical notions of the Eurasian “Heartland” and
Atlantic “Rimland” initially conceived by British geographer,
Halford Mackinder, Dugin layered fascist myths of the Aryan
“Sonnenmensch” over an idea of a united Eurasia to promote a
global Russian empire from Dublin to Vladivostok and southerly to
the Indian Ocean.” (Dugin 1997)

4. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• Dugin understood the importance of the U.S. in his project.
• The weapon of choice to disable the U.S. would be disinformation,
Dugin wrote, to pit left against right to distract America from
Russia’s project to unite Europe and Asia.

5. JRN 450 – Disinformation -
Alt-Right
• “It is particularly important,
moreover, to introduce
geopolitical disorder into
domestic American reality,
encouraging all kinds of
separatism, a variety of ethnic,
social and racial conflicts,
actively supporting all dissident
movements: extremists, racists
and sectarian groupings,
destabilizing the domestic
process in the USA.“ (Dugin
1997)

6. JRN 450 – Disinformation -
Alt-Right
• Russian media under Putin
such as Sputnik and Russia
Today became a “hub for
right and left-wing
political activists to
express their dissent
against the US, and
particularly against
liberalism.“

7. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones hosted Dugin on his Infowars
YouTube channel, and he appeared on Dugin’s far-right Tsargrad
television channel, creating a link between Russian disinformation
and American personalities.
• The American alt-right took root in 2008, using newly emerging
social media platforms Facebook and Twitter and traditional blogs
to spread disinformation that matched the goals Dugin set out.

8. JRN 450 – Disinformation -
Alt-Right
• In 1997, Dugin wrote that
Ukraine “as a state has no
geopolitical meaning” in
calling for a Russian
invasion to achieve its
imperial ambitions.

9. JRN 450 – Disinformation -
Alt-Right
• In 2014, Dugin urged
Russia to “kill, kill, kill”
Ukrainians, according to
Gideon Rachman of the
Financial Times.

10. JRN 450 – Disinformation -
Alt-Right
• In August 2022, six months
after Russia invaded
Ukraine, Dugin’s daughter,
Daria, was killed by a car
bomb in Moscow in an
attack thought to target
the father. Putin blamed
Ukraine.

11. JRN 450 – Disinformation -
Alt-Right
• In his interview with Alex
Jones, Dugin said that he
supported Donald Trump
and that he wanted to
unite pro-Trump and pro-
Putin forces against “our
common enemy, the
globalists,” according to
Rachman.

12. JRN 450 – Disinformation -
Alt-Right
• The connection between
Dugin and the alt-right
becomes clear in his
relationship with Richard
Spencer, a founder of the
U.S. alt-right movement.
Spencer’s wife, Nina
Kouprianova, translated
Dugin’s works into English.

13. JRN 450 – Disinformation -
Alt-Right
• Spencer is another key link
between the Russian
ideology and American alt-
right disinformation
campaigns.
• Spencer edited The
American Conservative
magazine.

14. JRN 450 – Disinformation -
Alt-Right
• In 2017, Spencer organized
the Unite the Right rally in
Charlottesville, Virginia.

15. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• The development of Breitbart News later run by Steve Bannon and
other sites such as Veterans Today, 21st Century Wire, ZeroHedge,
GlobalResearch.ca, MintPressNews, and The Duran played critical
roles in serving as information platforms that alt-right adherents
could use to carry information through social media posts
featuring links to articles.
• This created a “media bubble” through which disinformation could
be amplified.

16. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• The alt-right spread apocalyptic “of societal collapse, biblical
rapture, or race war” through multiple platforms.
• President Obama was a particular target when he served 2009-
2017, with memes and other disinformation artifacts claiming he
would seize guns, build FEMA camps to hold right-wing adherents
and turn over the government to China.
• The imageboard 4chan became a critical gateway to
disinformation.

17. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• The key goal remained Dugin’s: political destabilization, meaning
the alt-right developed an impulse to label many liberal
perspectives on climate change, mass shooting and so forth as
hoaxes.
• It used these themes as part of its disinformation campaigns,
enlisting millions of Americans through social media.
• The hoaxes became an alternate reality of the kind that Putin’s
advisor Vladislav Surkov and Dugin sought.

18. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• The alt-right also promoted a Duginesque “blood-and-soil”
strategy to lead to a white ethnostate, and it gathered force with
militia groups such as the The Oathkeepers, the Three Percenters
and the Proud Boys, all armed and ready to display their firepower
in open-carry states during rallies.
• And then came QAnon.

19. Disinformation- Alt-Right
• QAnon emerged from the swamps of 4chan and other sites in 2017.
• The conspiracy theories it promoted merged with the existing
alternate reality of the alt-right but soon consumed the alt-right
itself.
• It became the central organizing metaphor for millions of
Americans, all infected with smoldering disinformation that led to
armed insurrection, achieving Dugin’s goal.