This essay is devoted to the ongoing crisis in world politics caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing militaristic transformation of Russia. I am trying to answer one particular question: what role has capitalism, as a socioeconomic regime and an ideological program, played in this transformation? It seems, prima facie, unlikely that capitalism has played any role in this regard, since Putin’s administration now acts against the defenders of liberal capitalism within Russia and demonizes both the period of the 1990s when capitalism was first introduced as well as the “West” that is responsible for this introduction. However, there are reasons to believe that this period actually sowed the seeds of what is now blossoming, and that Putin’s regime, far from returning to the Soviet model, is actually a monstrous form of capitalism developing under the unfortunate circumstances of post-communism.