/lit/ - Literature

This became a niche for me last year, so perfect thread for me to make an effort post.
>>19979375
1. Geopolitics

Best one by far, and most relevant today. This is on the political theater that forms views of Russia to outsiders.It's very interesting to see how Putin weaponized Baudrillardian hyperreality and saw its effectiveness in the 21st century. >>19979342 is a painfully close-minded take from someone who hates America while unintentionally puts it on a pedestal.

2. For an internal view: Godfather of the Kremlin: The Decline of Russia in the Age of Gangster Capitalism

I've only read part of this as it has little to do with geopolitics, but I can't help but recommend it. It shows how deeply entrench corruption is in Russian politics. Putin knows how to maneuver this. Most of his thug-like domestic behavior is towards oligarchs OR political opposition propped up by said oligarchs. He correctly identifies they're the biggest threat to the nation and will descend upon it like vultures as they did between the end of the Cold War and Putin's term. Look at historical charts showing income inequality in Russia historically. It became dramatically worse between 1991 - 2001. (The West will lionize some of these oligarchs as victims, do not let them fool you. I can't justify jailing enemies for political reason but they aren't heroes.)

3. For a good non-partisan take on Putin: The New Tsar

What's fascinating is the dichotomy it draws between Putin I (first term) and Putin II (second term). Putin 1 was an ex-KGB bureaucrat who didn't seek power but just happened to get promoted to the top while impressively fighting the corruption and back-stabbing in Russian politics, especially as Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg - again, an appointed position.
Putin 2, on the other hand, is the one who became hardened after seeing Western tactics. He was already disappointed by them by then. He had a great relationship with Bush, and tried his best to urge him against the Iraq War on a personal level - as opposed to political pronouncements. Him and Saddam Hussein also had a nice personal relationship, and Putin was pleading for Hussein to resign at the time. After the Iraq War, he grew disillusioned with the West. Things really took a turn for the worst under Obama. Putin was (rightfully) shocked by the way Gaddafi was essentially covertly overthrown and essentially led to his death by NATO, which happened because Gaddafi was naive enough to halt any nuclear weapons programs. Then comes NATO's encroachment into Eastern Europe. During his 2012 re-election, Enter Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, the big turning point. I can share more about that later but after 2012 we saw "Punished Putin." I won't defend him after that. Essentially a man who used strongman tactics to fight NATO/Western influence while doing little to nothing for actual Russians. 2014 was the best example of this: flexing his muscle in Ukraine, while his oil-based economy crumbled.

>>19979169
Ideologically Dugin is a Traditionalist who appeals to guenon and evola fags. Westerners tend to take this esoteric stuff more seriously than actual Russians. Yes his spiritual support for Russia is used as civic nationalism but he's known for his ambitious proposals for Russian (or "Eurasian) dominance. His fourth political theory book and all the stuff that came after is more niche. This is the main one I'm talking about:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

It's unironically the smartest geopolitical strategy book or at least the one that's aged the best since it was written in 1997. Minus the China strategy, a soft alliance would be beneficial.

Anyways Amazon has banned Dugin's book. At least the primary English version. You can find it on Arktos.com which is like a right wing version of the Criterion Collection for books. I'm not shilling it, it's online for free. But if you go to the Arktos website and search his names you'll find he's done exclusive interviews with them along with published analyses and coverage of his ideas. If you want to understand Putin more I would recommend searching watching "hypernormalisation" (use Youtube to find the Putin excerpts) or reading picrel. He pretty much brings KGB instinct with Baudrillard strategies. Also the West demonizes him as a Bond villain when his country.

>>19964854
Check out picrel on this topic. Putin's the political incarnate of Buadrillardian politics and he loves it.

Anyone read this? And is it anything more than anti-Russian propaganda?