Alexander Dugin is a neo-fascist Russian ideologue often referred to as “Putin’s brain,” who has recently escalated his rhetorical attacks on Canada, publishing provocative tweets that align closely with known Kremlin disinformation tactics. Though not formally a Kremlin official, Dugin’s radical neo-fascist Eurasian worldview has deeply influenced Russian military and foreign policy circles, and his statements often echo or anticipate broader Russian strategic objectives.
Dugin’s recent commentary on Canada directly targets national unity, federal leadership, and democratic legitimacy. In one tweet, he wrote:
This message signals tacit support for Alberta separatism, tapping into existing regional grievances about Ottawa’s energy and equalization policies. Encouraging such secessionist narratives aligns with the Kremlin’s broader goal of weakening Western and Canadian democracy by exploiting internal fractures and amplifying dissatisfaction. This tactic echoes methods used by Russian state media and trolls to boost Brexit, and Catalan independence movements.
In 2019, Russian state media platform, Sputink, offered and international platform for a fringe Western Canadians separatist movement, calling itself “WEXIT”.
In a second tweet, Dugin attacked Canadian governance more broadly:
“Canada is in the middle of a huge catastrophe. Trudeau’s Woke Dictatorship leads the country to inevitable collapse.”
Here, Dugin employs polarizing “culture war” rhetoric, using the language of the far-right to delegitimize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada’s liberal democratic institutions. This framing is designed to polarize Canadian discourse, portraying the country as a “failing state” under authoritarian rule—despite Canada’s consistently high rankings in global democracy indices. This mirrors other Kremlin-backed narratives that weaponize “anti-woke” sentiment to radicalize Western political audiences and discredit its leadership.
Perhaps the most alarming of Dugin’s tweets came just before the 2025 Canadian federal election:
This post fuses several Kremlin disinformation objectives: it mocks democratic participation, portrays Canadian voters as mentally diseased, and promotes U.S. annexation fantasies as a legitimate remedy. The language evokes Putin’s own justifications for the invasion of Ukraine, framing democratic societies as too dysfunctional to govern themselves and in need of authoritarian “rescue.” By invoking Trump and “Make Canada Sane Again,” Dugin also imports American far-right populism into Canada’s political discourse, an increasingly common tactic in Kremlin-aligned messaging.
Russia’s Foreign Interference and Strategic Intent
Though Dugin operates outside formal Russian state structures, his proximity to Kremlin thinking and his role as a propagandist make these tweets a clear example of foreign information interference. His messages serve multiple strategic functions for Moscow:
- Undermining Canadian democracy by discrediting elections, leaders, and institutions;
- Sowing division and polarization through amplification of separatist and extremist rhetoric;
- Discrediting pro-Ukraine voices such as Mark Carney, a vocal critics of Russian aggression;
- Normalizing authoritarian alternatives by suggesting external intervention is a cure for democracy.
