Vladimir Putin’s ally and extreme Russian nationalist, Alexander Dugin, has said that a “nuclear apocalypse” is a likely outcome if the country faces losing the war.
The man who has often been dubbed Putin’s mentor or guru has preached a philosophy of Russian expansionism and that the country should be at the heart of a EuroAsian empire.
He sees the Russian world triumphing over the West and an integral part is to see Ukraine as part of Russia and not having a separate identity.
And now Dugin has backed Putin over his announcement of Russia’s first wartime mobilisation since WWll with 300,000 reservists to be called up to fight in Ukraine.
While he has also given his view on the way the war will end, and he says that a nuclear oblivion is a likely possibility if Russia is facing defeat.
Putin made a televised address telling of the mobilisation and moves to annex swaths of Ukrainian territory, while he threatened to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia, declaring: "It's not a bluff".
In response Dugin tweeted: "A very important decision has been taken and, it seems, not easily made. All our - unbearable, outrageous - sacrifices are not in vain. The state and the people are on the same side of the barricades."
Dugin, who lost his daughter, Darya Dugina, 29, last month in a car bomb attack, tried to rally Russians to get behind Putin and the war effort.
He said: "After all, we are fighting on the side of God and heaven, on the side of earth and soul. That is why our native blood is donated, flowing directly from Russian hearts."
While he said that the Ukraine conflict was turning into a world war he said that there were only three outcomes.
Looking at the possibility of defeat for Russia, he said: "It would mean not only the end of the regime, but the end of everything and everyone. It is essentially a scenario for the end of Russia, Finis Rossiae. If our retreat begins, everything will fall, for both external and internal causes."
His second outcome was the “nuclear apocalypse”.
Dugin wrote: "The second scenario is a nuclear apocalypse. It is possible that Moscow, which is beginning to lose seriously, will decide to use nuclear weapons.
"Likely? Yes, probably. Is anyone in Russia considering this possibility? Undoubtedly. Russia could resort to nuclear weapons in other situations, since for Russia, both state and people, losing a war would mean total annihilation, and not just a severe but still tolerable defeat, which could be overcome, the nuclear scenario cannot be discarded.
"The West clearly underestimates this probability, considering it a bluff."
Then his final outcome was for a Russian victory which would see the building of a “religious and spiritual” empire and the end of Western society.
He said: "The third scenario is the most important. In Russia, a revolution is taking place from above. Putin, who has already broken with the West, turns this total and irreversible rupture into an ideology, a course, a strategy and the sole guideline of existence.
"All compromises are abolished, Russia is openly becoming a people's empire with a marked religious and social (anti-capitalist) ethos. Liberalism and Westernism are banned.
"The state and the people regroup and the special military operation is transformed into a popular holy war. To be or not to be. That moment has arrived".
In a country that counts millions of former conscripts as reservists, Putin's "partial mobilisation" decree gave no clue as to who would be called up. Defence Secretary Sergei Shoigu said 300,000 people would be mobilised from a pool of 25 million. Contracts of professional troops would be extended indefinitely.
Putin also effectively announced plans to annex four Ukrainian provinces, saying Moscow would assist with referendums on joining Ukraine's Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions to Russia, and implement the results.
Offering no evidence, Putin accused officials in NATO states of threatening to use nuclear weapons against Russia.
They should know that "the weathervane can turn towards them", he said, adding that Russia "also has various means of destruction".
"When the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. It's not a bluff."
US President Joe Biden, in a speech to world leaders at the UN General Assembly, responded: "Again, just today, President Putin has made overt nuclear threats against Europe, in a reckless disregard for the responsibilities of the non-proliferation regime."
