After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the European Union’s subsequent ban on state-controlled Russian media outlets such as RT and Sputnik, the Kremlin retained alternative channels for spreading its ideological and propagandistic narratives. One of the most effective has been niche book publishing across EU countries. Works by Russian ideologues of imperial revanchism and geopolitical revisionism continue to circulate through European publishing networks, framed as historical studies, “traditionalist philosophy,” anti-globalism, or even conspiracy theory. These pro-Russian imperial narratives target both the far right — by promoting ethno-nationalism and the idea of Western decline — and the far left, through anti-Americanism, anti-globalism, and the concept of a “multipolar world.”
This channel operates in a de facto blind spot of European legislation. Books remain formally protected by freedom of speech and of the press, and their content rarely faces the kind of moderation or regulatory scrutiny applied to broadcast media. Many publishing houses also retain considerable autonomy in deciding what to publish.
Among the Russian authors whose books appear on the shelves of certain European bookshops are Alexander Dugin, the leading advocate of “neo-Eurasianism” and of Russia’s unique geopolitical role in the contemporary world, along with his associates Valery Korovin and Leonid Savin. Dugin presents himself as the principal architect of the so-called “Russian world” and “multipolar world” concepts. He has a well-established reputation as a defender of the Kremlin’s aggressive policies and the wars it has launched, including against Ukraine, and he is openly hostile toward Europe and the United States. Many specialists regard his views as neo-fascist, pseudoscientific, and deeply misanthropic, particularly because of his calls for the physical destruction of the regime’s opponents and of nations that refuse to submit to Russian dominance. Under EU sanctions since 2022, Dugin remains an influential figure for Western anti-system, Eurosceptic, and far-right movements.
Valery Korovin, head of the Centre for Geopolitical Expertise (itself under US and EU sanctions), focuses on the idea of Europe’s decline and the need for its geopolitical subordination to a Eurasian bloc led by the Kremlin. Leonid Savin works as a publicist who introduces Russian concepts of “hybrid warfare” and Eurasianism into far-right discourse in France and Spain, while carefully avoiding European sanctions himself.
All three draw on the institutional networks of the International Eurasian Movement and the ultraconservative Russian Izborsk Club, adapting their writings for marginal and pro-Russian audiences in Europe.
The continued publication and distribution of works by these sanctioned ideologues exposes both a practical mechanism and a sanctions loophole: European publishers can present Russian propaganda as legitimate intellectual output.
The British house Arktos Media Ltd, registered in London, has long issued English translations of Dugin’s books — from foundational texts such as The Fourth Political Theory (2012) and Eurasian Mission (2014) to the 2023 collection Talking to the Wolf. These works advance the idea that the existing Western order must be dismantled. The French publisher Éditions Ars Magna has continued releasing Dugin’s titles even after the full-scale invasion. Recent publications include the religious-fundamentalist Métaphysique de la Bonne Nouvelle (2023), a hagiographic volume about his daughter Daria Dugin titled Une vie radicale (2024), Les fondamentaux de la conspirologie (2025), and the esoteric treatise Julius Evola, étoile du matin (2026).
In Spain, Ediciones Fides and Hipérbola Janus have published books by Dugin’s associates. Valery Korovin’s El final de Europa: juntos con Rusia en el camino hacia la multipolaridad (2024) and a series of works by Leonid Savin issued between 2022 and 2024 present the decline of Europe and argue for its subordination to Kremlin-led Eurasian hegemony, all under the guise of “alternative thought.”
The anti-Western thrust of these writings is directed primarily at discrediting Europe’s liberal-democratic systems, which are portrayed as decadent and anti-Christian. Dugin describes the EU as a “submissive colony of the United States” and casts Russia as the sole defender of traditional values, sovereignty, and sacred hierarchy in the modern world. As a result, these books appear without restriction in the catalogues of major online marketplaces such as Amazon, Fnac, and AbeBooks, where algorithms classify them as standard philosophical or political literature — thereby amplifying pro-Russian and anti-Western narratives to a global audience.
The Kremlin treats the circulation of neo-imperial and revisionist literature as a deliberate tool of ideological expansion. It seeks to cultivate a pro-Russian discourse among Europe’s far-right movements and various Eurosceptic circles. Leaders and ideologues of these movements make little effort to conceal their contacts with Russian neo-Eurasianists and often align their political strategies with them. By publishing works that blur the line between wartime propaganda and “alternative opinion,” Moscow aims to unite far-right, far-left, and other anti-system forces around a shared project: the gradual dismantling of the liberal-democratic order, the erosion of EU and NATO cohesion, and the fundamental reshaping of Europe’s political landscape in the interests of the Kremlin regime.