“I think his influence is greatly exaggerated — in the first place, by himself,” Dr. Daniel Treisman, a UCLA political scientist and author of The Return: Russia’s Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev, told ThinkProgress. “There is a great temptation to find a ‘thinker’ behind every ‘political actor.’ If the ideas of a certain writer correspond to some of the actions of a given political leader, then that is often considered proof of influence. Inconsistencies are ignored. And then, purveyors of extreme political ideologies are often good at self-promotion.”

Dugin may have been one of a litany of radical right wing ideologues supportive of Putin’s annexation of Crimea — but it seems that when Putin stopped needing their backing, he turned on them. In mid-2014 Dugin lost his job at Moscow University, where he headed the sociology department.

Max Fisher, then of Vox, traveled to Russia in spring 2015 to meet Dugin’s cohorts; he said they were “isolated and despondent, and no longer considered Putin an ally — but rather saw him as their enemy.”
— Read on thinkprogress.org/putins-rasputin-has-lauded-donald-trump-as-a-sensation-8de320369bc1/