[GoldenState_Rose]

Ping. I worry you’re a fan...

[Cronos]

Of Dugin? Nope, I'm a Polish citizen since last year and I fear the beast to the east

The entire Eurasian idea is well-known in Polish nationalist circles

My thoughts on this:

1. Moscow considers itself as a child of not just Byzantium (where it took Orthodoxy and also Caesaropapism) and Kievan Rus (purely in terms of prestige and the rule fo an oligarchy) but also see's itself as the successor state to the great Khans of Mongolia
   
   
2. Yes, the Russian ideology now sees the Mongol rule as more an alliance against the West and sees themselves as a continuation
   
   
3. Ethnically the Muscowites are a mix of Slavs with Finno-Ugric types and with Tatar-Mongol-Turkic folks
   
   
4. Politically they have been the successors of the Khans - despots
   
   
5. Under Ivan IV they took on the dual "tasks" of:
   
   1. Gathering of the Rus - reconquering Rus lands from the Polish-Lithuanians and from the Turco-Mongols
   2. Gathering of the Orthodox
   To the latter they merged the "Gathering of the Slavs" - this idea failed and they have given it up after two attempts at digesting Poles (each time the Poles gave the Russkis a bad case of indigestion) and the way that Romanians and Bulgarians today are not pro-Russia (thanks to their experience under the USSR's empire)
   
6. They are eurasian and see themselves as this central state, but closer to Mongolia than to the West
   
   
7. I support Putin's ambitions to the south (towards Turkey and Syria) for two reasons:
   1. It protects ancient Christians
   2. It keeps the Russian eagle's eyes firmly away from us

[Cronos]

you haven’t replied why you think I’m a fan