EURASIA PARTY

   Political party. A socially oriented, étatist political party, the Eurasia Party was founded in 2002 by the right-wing ideologue Aleksandr Dugin. The Eurasia Party rejects Atlanticism and Western-style values for Russia and supports Russia’s centrality in Eurasian affairs. Historically, it has fielded few candidates, opting instead to support the ruling elite (principally Vladimir Putin and his successor, Dmitry Medvyedev) with which it has close connections. Rather than being a party of pure Russian nationalism, the party advocates in the name of all constituent peoples of the Russian Federation, including Tatars, Kalmyks, and Chechens, among others, as well as supporting the traditional interpretations of the four principal Russian faiths: Russian Orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. The party has a membership of over 2,000 and has 50 provincial branches across Russia.