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BlogAnatoly Karlin Archive
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Vladimir Putin
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Vladimir Putin

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Russia's Nationalist Turn
How Putin Created the Russian National State
•�September 28, 2021
•�9,200 Words •�795 Comments
For the first time in more than a century, the Russians have a state that they can call their own, a state run by and for the Russian people - the hallowed "Russian National State" (RNS) that has been the holy grail of Russian nationalism in the post-Soviet era. At first glance, this seems like... Read More
No Sovoks → 500 Million Russians
•�September 4, 2021
•�400 Words •�303 Comments
Matt Yglesias might want a billion Americans. But there would have been 500 million Russians in the absence of the Bolshevik Revolution, as was predicted by Dmitry Mendeleev in a 1907 book. Putin, who it is now very clear reads my blog and Twitter, recently said as much himself in a meeting with schoolchildren in... Read More
Debates Between Heads of State Need to Become A Thing
•�March 19, 2021
•�400 Words •�36 Comments
Though I realize that Putin's call for a debate with Biden in response to Biden's claim that Putin is a "killer" is a troll job on all sides, it strikes me that debates between heads of states are an interesting idea that need to be actualized. If you think there is "ideological polarization" between Democrats... Read More
Putin on the Crimea Anniversary
•�March 19, 2021
•�400 Words •�29 Comments
From a speech yesterday: If you look at our map, our big map, Crimea and Sevastopol look like a small dot, but we are talking about the restoration of historical justice. We are talking about the importance of this land for our country and our people. Why? It is very simple. Our ancestors have been... Read More
Putin's 5 Star Hotel in Gelendzhik
•�January 22, 2021
•�1,200 Words •�286 Comments
Good taste, not overly tacky (e.g. too much gold like with Trump). I'd probably build something like that as a strongman. There's nothing cardinally new about Navalny's video. The construction of a palace at Gelendzhik in Krasnodar Krai linked to friends of Putin was "leaked" to the world more than a decade by Sergey Kolesnikov,... Read More
Putin Press Conference 2020
•�December 18, 2020
•�200 Words •�47 Comments
I wasn't able to watch it yesterday, but I was amused to see its main highlight: BBC hack Steve Rosenberg getting owned with facts and logic by PUTLER! There wasn't much new or interesting: Navalny is a tool of American intelligence services, his investigations are a way of laundering their findings... "Our security services keep... Read More
Putin's Article for the National Interest
•�June 19, 2020
•�500 Words •�100 Comments
Here it is: Vladimir Putin: The Real Lessons of the 75th Anniversary of World War II It is a translation from the Russian on Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Summary from Bryan MacDonald at RT. It's TL;DR for me. But quick perusal, seems like a standard modern Russian attempt to reconcile the Soviet version of history, including battling... Read More
PUTLER, President for Life?
•�March 11, 2020
•�800 Words •�86 Comments
Russia's Constitutional reforms, which I have been actively covering on this blog, took yet another turn for the unexpected yesterday. Now my initial take had been that Putin, probably tired of 20 years at the helm*, was moving to "institutionalize" Putinism by doing things like forbidding future Presidents and senior officials from having foreign citizenships,... Read More
Russia Challenges the Holocaust Monopoly
•�January 23, 2020
•�300 Words •�64 Comments
In the modern world, being a victim gives you status points. So "owning" the Holocaust is like a jackpot - the Germans gave the Jews lemons in 1941-45, and then the Jews made lemonade. Unfortunately, not all Jews are partial to sharing the lemonade stand: Pro tip: This is the part you're meant to say... Read More
The Outlines of Post-Putin Russia
•�January 17, 2020
•�1,300 Words •�73 Comments
In my previous post, I wrote about the broad outlines of the constitutional changes proposed by Putin, but without speculating too much on their import. I will do that now in more detail. *** Putin is looking for a retirement plan that guarantees the security of the system he has built, but in a way... Read More
Final Proof Based & Redpilled PUTLER Reads This Blog
•�May 30, 2019
•�1,000 Words •�123 Comments
This article is written by Anna Nemtsova, an ex-Soviet Jewess whose main journalistic preoccupation is hating on Russia's "useless bachelors" and trying to convince their women to miscegenate with swarthy lotharios from the Global South instead. Russia
What If Russia Stood on the Sidelines While Crimea Burned?
•�March 19, 2019
•�2,500 Words •�125 Comments
One persistent criticism of Russia's decision to annex the Crimea/support its people's right to national self-determination [cross out as per your ideological preferences] is that it has had dubious benefits not just for Russia, but for Putin himself. This is a common take. For instance, as the 5th anniversary of Crimea's incorporation into Russia approached,... Read More
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Putin Again
•�February 9, 2019
•�1,500 Words •�317 Comments
The title is a bit of an exaggeration. Even back in 2010, there was plenty to criticize Putin for, and since then, the details haven't even changed that much so far as I'm concerned (e.g. corruption, bureaucracy, white elephants). And it's not that I have been unremittingly anti-Putin in the past few years, regardless of... Read More
Don't Expect Much from the Helsinki Meeting
•�July 14, 2018
•�600 Words •�262 Comments
So I know everyone is in a GET HYPE mood for this, fueled by loony interpretations ranging from THE RESISTANCE's idea that Trump is going there to receive his annual performance review from DARK LORD OF THE KREMLIN, to Trump having chosen Helsinki specifically for Finland's symbolic value as having played a role in the... Read More
Putin's Inauguration
•�May 7, 2018
•�600 Words •�222 Comments
So Putin has just entered his fourth and almost certainly last term. Where to now? Putin has a vast, legitimate mandate to leave his final imprint on Russia, but what precisely that involves is still just a black box - as I repeatedly noted during my Russia elections coverage, Putin did not even bother with... Read More
Putin, President of Londongrad
•�March 22, 2018
•�700 Words •�93 Comments
Putin did poorly in 2012 against Prokhorov in the Far Abroad, with the billionaire liberal candidate level outright beating Putin in the US, Canada, Britain, and France [full list in Russian]. Russian Presidential elections abroad in 2012: Blue = Putin; Green = Prokhorov. However, while Putin failed to get an absolute majority even in Germany... Read More
Russia Elections 2018: the Big Roundup
•�March 19, 2018
•�1,500 Words •�48 Comments
Meddling in the Russian elections. I voted for Zhirinovsky on March 18, 2018. Have said all there is to say on that in these articles: An Analysis of Zhirinovsky's Program Russia Elections 2018: Elections as Regime Referendums Putin 2018: The Scorecard With that out of the way, let's move on to the bigger picture. PS.... Read More
Putin 2018: the Scorecard
•�March 17, 2018
•�900 Words •�226 Comments
Putin Pepe. Once rare, now the market's flooded with them. I suppose this post can also double up as the Russian Elections 2018 thread. See archive: My final prediction: Turnout: 68.0% Baburin: 0.8% Grudinin: 9.7% Zhirinovsky: 7.8% Putin: 76.2% Sobchak: 2.0% Suraykin: 0.5% Titov: 0.5% Yavlinsky: 1.3% Spoiled ballots: 1.2% Putin needs to get his... Read More
So Putin Is Running
•�December 7, 2017
•�900 Words •�43 Comments
Big surprise. /s Lots of boring and repetitive takes out there, so I'll write about something different; maybe this too will be boring, but at least it's probably unique. Here is how three of the leading lights of the Russian nationalist movement, the Two Egors and Igor Strelkov, reacted to this news. Egor Kholmogorov approves,... Read More
Russia Elections 2018: How Big Will Putin Win?
•�November 26, 2017
•�1,000 Words •�165 Comments
Assuming that it will be just between these four, I think it's going to go something like this: Note that Sobchak and any [liberal candidate] can be substituted for Navalny. (Also TBH, I think Navalny has a chance of getting 10% - see below). If other candidates (but not Navalny) run, for instance, Grigory Yavlinsky... Read More
Russia Elections 2018: Will Putin Even Run?
•�November 20, 2017
•�1,300 Words •�183 Comments
In my opinion, almost certainly yes (quantified: 90%. In line with PredictIt). Just to get that clear off the bat. But neither is it an absolutely foregone conclusion. For instance, see this recent "scoop" from The Independent's Oliver Carroll: The reason "scoop" is in apostrophes is that Putin's tiredness is hardly new to the Moscow... Read More
Open Thread 28: the Chad Alan AI
•�October 20, 2017
•�1,900 Words •�93 Comments
* The legendary Major General Issam Zahreddine was blown up by a land mine in Deir ez-Zor. What damn bad luck. Surviving an ISIS siege for three years, only to go like that. * Iraq takes back Kirkuk. Seemingly prearranged return to the status quo of 2014. * Haaretz: White Nationalist Richard Spencer Gives Israel... Read More
Presidential Q&A: Bye Putin, Hi Putlet
•�June 15, 2017
•�1,000 Words •�209 Comments
Western journalists have this weird habit of making fun of Putin for his yearly marathon phone-ins with the Russian public. It's populism. It's all staged. Well, sure, it's all that. I can see how a class that writes articles with titles such as "It’s Time for the Elites to Rise Up Against the Ignorant Masses"... Read More
Alexey Ten Percent. (Or More).
•�May 3, 2017
•�700 Words •�19 Comments
The other day a Levada poll was released showing an apparently lackluster performance by Navalny in a hypothetical Presidential race against Putin and the other candidates. If there were elections on the coming Sunday, who would you vote for? (The figures below exclude those said they don't know, or don't intend to vote). Apr13 Apr14... Read More
Will Russians Come Out to Defend Putin?
•�July 23, 2016
•�2,500 Words •�37 Comments
... Well, it doesn't have quite the ring of the better known poem that, having once landed Erdogan in jail, has now ensured his survival. So people are now asking: Without Erdogan's closer ties to a religion far more passionary than Orthodox Christianity, without his allegedly superior democratic credentials, would anyone actually bother out to... Read More
World Map of Putin Derangement Syndrome
•�December 25, 2015
•�600 Words •�103 Comments
Based on a December 22, 2015 WIN/Gallup International poll: [Click to enlarge]. Note that this indicates net approval, that is, the percentage of people with a favorable view of Putin minus the percentage of people with an unfavorable view of him. One immediately striking thing is just how how uniform Western attitudes are. Note how... Read More
Is Putin the Most Powerful Man in the World?
•�November 5, 2015
•�400 Words •�8 Comments
According to Forbes, yes he is, for the third time in a row. A natural question would be - how on Earth do you actually quantify such things? Forbes relies on an index consisting of a political/demographic component (control over people), a financial component (wealth), prominence in various spheres (e.g. automative, space, financial, etc.), and... Read More
Putin's IQ Is 130
•�October 7, 2015
•�1,800 Words •�63 Comments
Pumpkin Person (PP), an up and coming IQ blogger, has estimated Putin's IQ to be about 127. He derives this based on a z-factor analysis of Putin's status as the most powerful White person in the world (135), based on the 0.4 correlation between IQ and income (and presumably, power), minus an adjustment for his... Read More
Schrodinger's Putin
•�March 15, 2015
•�1,800 Words •�14 Comments
After a week-long absence, the Internet is growing rife with rumors about Putin's health and whereabouts. Has he produced a heir with Alina Kabaeva? Is he plotting nuclear war with the West from his bunker at Mount Yamantau? Has he been abducted by aliens? Or is the Mausoleum about to get a new occupant?? Let's... Read More
Lessons from the Snowden Affair
•�July 7, 2013
•�1,600 Words •�21 Comments
(1) Just as with Manning, it is beyond dispute that Snowden broke US law. As such, the US government is perfectly entitled to try to apprehend him (on its own soil), request his extradition, and prosecute him. This is quite perpendicular to whether Snowden's leaks were morally "justified" or not. In some sense, they were.... Read More
A Few Myths About Chavez's Venezuela
•�March 9, 2013
•�1,000 Words •�6 Comments
Okay, I promise this will be the last post on the matter. But some of the tropes that come up time and time again in coverage of Chavez's legacy, from neocons and faux-leftists alike, just have to be addressed for me to rest easy. Note that this is NOT meant to be comprehensive; just some... Read More
New Year Special: 2012 Predictions
•�January 3, 2012
•�4,000 Words •�215 Comments
It's been a great year! To recap, in rough chronological order, 2011 saw: The most popular post (with 562 comments and counting; granted, most of them consisting of Indians and Pakistanis flaming each other); Visualizing the Kremlin Clans (joint project with Kevin Rothrock of A Good Treaty); my National Comparisons between life in Russia, Britain,... Read More
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Anatoly Karlin
About Anatoly Karlin

I am a blogger, thinker, and businessman in the SF Bay Area. I’m originally from Russia, spent many years in Britain, and studied at U.C. Berkeley.

One of my tenets is that ideologies tend to suck. As such, I hesitate about attaching labels to myself. That said, if it’s really necessary, I suppose “liberal-conservative neoreactionary” would be close enough.

Though I consider myself part of the Orthodox Church, my philosophy and spiritual views are more influenced by digital physics, Gnosticism, and Russian cosmism than anything specifically Judeo-Christian.