The Charisma Vampire

Anatoly Karlin joins me for the second time on this podcast. In our previous conversation, he talked about his move away from Russian nationalism. This time, we discuss his new article, “Navalny Died a Barin.” I am fascinated by the idea of Putin as a kind of charisma vampire, who destroys anyone who is interesting and full of life, leaving a regime of gray mindless mediocrities willing to do his bidding. I was touched reading about how Navalny once asked the judge and court officials who were persecuting him whether this was what they wanted to be doing with their one God-given life on this earth. According to Anatoly, it doesn’t matter whether you are pro- or anti-Putin. What the regime cares about is that you don’t have your own voice and can be controlled. The enemies of liberal democracy are today boring, cowardly bureaucrats. I don’t know if this is a blue pill or a red pill, but it’s certainly a good reason to oppose modern authoritarian regimes.

We discuss the logic of killing Navalny, where any future threats to the regime might come from, what would happen if Trump came back into office, and how Putin is a TV watcher driven by a combination of self-preservation instincts and mind-melting Boomer memes.

At the end we touch briefly on Anatoly’s current experience in Próspera, what cryptocurrencies he’s bullish on, and whether he’s tried any gene therapy while there.

I find myself disliking Putin more the longer he stays in power. After Prigozhin’s death, I noted that the man may have been a war criminal, but there was a masculine heroism in how he lived and died. If only Putin was a more worthy adversary of Western civilization! Not a guy who is still scared of covid, hides behind bureaucratic procedures to wear down his enemies, and poisons their underpants. The fact that the populist right has embraced the man only reinforces my view of how much they suck.

Anatoly predicts that the Russian election next month will basically be a nonevent. The death of Navalny feels like the end of Season 4 of the show or something. Already having taken out Prigozhin and on the offensive in Ukraine, things are looking up for Putin. Assuming he gets past this election without much trouble, we’re just waiting for the next health scare, mass protest movement, economic crisis, shift in the war, or attempted coup. Russians deserve better, and may the memory of Navalny inspire them to work towards their liberation from this lifeless and particularly vicious gerontocracy.