This is a good take. Putin is the result of Yeltsins brutal repression of the Russian people and an anti communist. He’s not an anti imperialist either. I can get behind toppling Nazis in Ukraine but if doesn’t make putin based or something.
It is but not by choice. The imperialists have forced Russia to adopt an anti-imperialist stance and now Russia is more anti-imperialist than most socialist states. The only state more openly anti-imperialist than Russia is the DPRK.
Cuba doesn’t really pose the same kind of danger to the imperialists. Yes they remain principled and they try to do all they can in terms of international solidarity against imperialist pressure in Latin America, but given their difficult geographical location they have to do what they can to just survive in the face of the strangling blockade imposed on them.
They aren’t sending volunteers over to fight in anti-colonial struggles anymore like they used to back in the day…though there have been a few rumors of Cuban volunteers in Russia’s SMO, but if i remember correctly the Cuban government was not very approving of that. And i can understand why since they are probably wary of provoking the US.
The DPRK on the other hand is in a much better position to take hostile action against the imperialists as we have seen with their material support of Russia, supplying them with ammunition of various kinds. This isn’t because the Cubans are less revolutionary, but simply because Cuba doesn’t have the same military might that DPRK does to defend itself.
And having nuclear weapons also makes a big difference in establishing deterrence…they give you a protective umbrella to act much more confidently against imperialism. Which is why i cannot understand why Iran still hasn’t gotten them, they absolutely could if they wanted to and the US and the Zionist entity could not do very much about it at all since Iran is also conventionally powerful.
By what definition? You do know the Russian federation has Russian occupied territories in Transistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Kurill islands, and that’s not even mentioning the current disputes in Ukraine.
The reasoning for expansion meets the definitions for imperialism, including Marx’s TRPF, Hobson’s theory of monopolistic growth, and Lenin’s theory of imperialism being a new stage of capital development.
All of these territorial expansions were motivated by monopolistic and oligarchic capital in Russia attempting to expand or protect their material interest.
There are Russian peacekeepers in Transnistria but the rebellion of the region was its own. It has its own militia forces and its own government. When the USSR was dissolved this predominantly Russian region did not want to be forced to stay with the Republic of Moldova and fought a war to protect its independence. Russian peacekeepers came afterwards to ensure that no further conflict would break out.
Abkhazia, South Ossetia
Again, deeply misleading. These regions were never under the Georgian government and had always fought to be autonomous from Tbilisi since the USSR broke up. After the US installed its puppets in the Georgian government via color revolution, NATO promised Georgia membership in 2008 and pushed them to reincorporate Abkhazia and South Ossetia as a precondition for joining, by force if necessary (they did the same with Ukraine and the Donbass republics).
Even the EU investigation into the 2008 conflict concluded that Georgia started it by attacking the breakaway regions. Russia came to their defense and is still there because the governments of those regions asked them to ensure they are not attacked again.
Kuril islands
This one takes the cake. Are you a sympathizer of Japanese imperialism? Do you also advocate for Russia to give Kaliningrad to Germany? Do you not understand that when WW2 ended the USSR retained these territories not only as compensation for the aggression committed against them but also to deter future aggression from the same direction? Are you going to demand Poland give Silesia and Pomerania back to Germany? Are you going to demand Korea be given back to Japan?
Other than the Kurils these are not territorial expansions, they were not annexed. None of these cases were primarily motivated by interests other than security. Russia already has plenty of land and resources. The reason why Russia has had to intervene in both Ukraine and Georgia is clearly seen in US think tank policy papers which explicitly advocate for creating exactly such conflicts along Russia’s borders to “overextend and imbalance” them. If Russia had not responded, even bigger threats would have been created against them.
Modern imperialism does not take place via territorial expansion. The Anglo-European imperialists have been practicing neo-colonial exploitation and subjugation of much of the rest of the world since WW2 entirely without annexation and in many cases without military intervention. This does not make them any less imperialist, nor does Russia’s reaction to imperialist threats make it imperialist itself.
I mean, the merging and control of the fossil fuel oligarchy with the Russian finance system covers the first three chapters of Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.
You can also see how the concentration of capital in these sectors creates surplus capital that needs to be reinvested in less developed regions to increase profits. This is an example of the exportation of capital covered in chapter 4.
In their acquired territory in moldova, oligarchs from the fossil fuel industry have taken control of large scale steel production. South Ossetia is strategically important as a buffer state for Iran and turkey, it also has access to large petroleum reserves. Abkhazia is strategically important to maintain trade routes in the black sea, and has become a large tourist destination for wealthy Russians.
I believe what we are currently witnessing with the ukrainian conflict is a resolution of a new version of chapter 5 and 6, A division of the world between capitalist powers and a reformation of the division of the world by the new great powers.
Imo climate change has shortened the run way for capitalist nations, so they need to make an attempt to secure economically and strategically important territories. Russia is just another capitalist country trying to get their house in order before the next global conflict, ensuring their place among the great powers.
The merging and control of the fossil fuel industry under Russian state ownership is actually the opposite of what happens in the neoliberal West where the economy relies on neo-colonial looting. Russia’s state control over its finance system is one of the reasons why it is able to prevent the kind of hyper-financialization that has devastated Western industrial economies. China does the same but to a much greater extent since it is a socialist state.
Russia has no territory in Moldova. Transnistria is a de facto independent republic. The idea that Russia extracts some great benefit from this impoverished strip of land that is essentially blockaded by NATO vassal states is absurd.
You are stuck in a paradigm of imperialism that does not correspond to how imperialism really functions today, via finance and neo-colonial unequal exchange. Imperialism of the late 20th and early 21st century does not operate as it did in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The historical clock cannot be turned back, the division of the world between capitalist powers already took place. Today’s conditions and geopolitical dynamics are not the same as those of Lenin’s time.
There is only one imperialist nexus in the world now and it is centered around US unipolar global domination and their neoliberal hegemony. All actors that work against this hegemony are by necessity anti-imperialist. This new anti-imperialist camp is ideologically and politically heterogenous and includes socialist states like China, semi-peripheral capitalist states like Russia, and peripheral, underdeveloped states in the global south that are rebelling against neo-colonialism.
This is a good take. Putin is the result of Yeltsins brutal repression of the Russian people and an anti communist. He’s not an anti imperialist either. I can get behind toppling Nazis in Ukraine but if doesn’t make putin based or something.
Russia is not imperialist
It’s not anti imperialist either
It is but not by choice. The imperialists have forced Russia to adopt an anti-imperialist stance and now Russia is more anti-imperialist than most socialist states. The only state more openly anti-imperialist than Russia is the DPRK.
Cuba?
Cuba doesn’t really pose the same kind of danger to the imperialists. Yes they remain principled and they try to do all they can in terms of international solidarity against imperialist pressure in Latin America, but given their difficult geographical location they have to do what they can to just survive in the face of the strangling blockade imposed on them.
They aren’t sending volunteers over to fight in anti-colonial struggles anymore like they used to back in the day…though there have been a few rumors of Cuban volunteers in Russia’s SMO, but if i remember correctly the Cuban government was not very approving of that. And i can understand why since they are probably wary of provoking the US.
The DPRK on the other hand is in a much better position to take hostile action against the imperialists as we have seen with their material support of Russia, supplying them with ammunition of various kinds. This isn’t because the Cubans are less revolutionary, but simply because Cuba doesn’t have the same military might that DPRK does to defend itself.
And having nuclear weapons also makes a big difference in establishing deterrence…they give you a protective umbrella to act much more confidently against imperialism. Which is why i cannot understand why Iran still hasn’t gotten them, they absolutely could if they wanted to and the US and the Zionist entity could not do very much about it at all since Iran is also conventionally powerful.
fair points
By what definition? You do know the Russian federation has Russian occupied territories in Transistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Kurill islands, and that’s not even mentioning the current disputes in Ukraine.
The reasoning for expansion meets the definitions for imperialism, including Marx’s TRPF, Hobson’s theory of monopolistic growth, and Lenin’s theory of imperialism being a new stage of capital development.
All of these territorial expansions were motivated by monopolistic and oligarchic capital in Russia attempting to expand or protect their material interest.
There are Russian peacekeepers in Transnistria but the rebellion of the region was its own. It has its own militia forces and its own government. When the USSR was dissolved this predominantly Russian region did not want to be forced to stay with the Republic of Moldova and fought a war to protect its independence. Russian peacekeepers came afterwards to ensure that no further conflict would break out.
Again, deeply misleading. These regions were never under the Georgian government and had always fought to be autonomous from Tbilisi since the USSR broke up. After the US installed its puppets in the Georgian government via color revolution, NATO promised Georgia membership in 2008 and pushed them to reincorporate Abkhazia and South Ossetia as a precondition for joining, by force if necessary (they did the same with Ukraine and the Donbass republics).
Even the EU investigation into the 2008 conflict concluded that Georgia started it by attacking the breakaway regions. Russia came to their defense and is still there because the governments of those regions asked them to ensure they are not attacked again.
This one takes the cake. Are you a sympathizer of Japanese imperialism? Do you also advocate for Russia to give Kaliningrad to Germany? Do you not understand that when WW2 ended the USSR retained these territories not only as compensation for the aggression committed against them but also to deter future aggression from the same direction? Are you going to demand Poland give Silesia and Pomerania back to Germany? Are you going to demand Korea be given back to Japan?
Other than the Kurils these are not territorial expansions, they were not annexed. None of these cases were primarily motivated by interests other than security. Russia already has plenty of land and resources. The reason why Russia has had to intervene in both Ukraine and Georgia is clearly seen in US think tank policy papers which explicitly advocate for creating exactly such conflicts along Russia’s borders to “overextend and imbalance” them. If Russia had not responded, even bigger threats would have been created against them.
Modern imperialism does not take place via territorial expansion. The Anglo-European imperialists have been practicing neo-colonial exploitation and subjugation of much of the rest of the world since WW2 entirely without annexation and in many cases without military intervention. This does not make them any less imperialist, nor does Russia’s reaction to imperialist threats make it imperialist itself.
I’d genuinely like to know how Russia’s actions and conditions meet Lenin’s definition of imperialism.
I mean, the merging and control of the fossil fuel oligarchy with the Russian finance system covers the first three chapters of Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.
You can also see how the concentration of capital in these sectors creates surplus capital that needs to be reinvested in less developed regions to increase profits. This is an example of the exportation of capital covered in chapter 4.
In their acquired territory in moldova, oligarchs from the fossil fuel industry have taken control of large scale steel production. South Ossetia is strategically important as a buffer state for Iran and turkey, it also has access to large petroleum reserves. Abkhazia is strategically important to maintain trade routes in the black sea, and has become a large tourist destination for wealthy Russians.
I believe what we are currently witnessing with the ukrainian conflict is a resolution of a new version of chapter 5 and 6, A division of the world between capitalist powers and a reformation of the division of the world by the new great powers.
Imo climate change has shortened the run way for capitalist nations, so they need to make an attempt to secure economically and strategically important territories. Russia is just another capitalist country trying to get their house in order before the next global conflict, ensuring their place among the great powers.
The merging and control of the fossil fuel industry under Russian state ownership is actually the opposite of what happens in the neoliberal West where the economy relies on neo-colonial looting. Russia’s state control over its finance system is one of the reasons why it is able to prevent the kind of hyper-financialization that has devastated Western industrial economies. China does the same but to a much greater extent since it is a socialist state.
Russia has no territory in Moldova. Transnistria is a de facto independent republic. The idea that Russia extracts some great benefit from this impoverished strip of land that is essentially blockaded by NATO vassal states is absurd.
You are stuck in a paradigm of imperialism that does not correspond to how imperialism really functions today, via finance and neo-colonial unequal exchange. Imperialism of the late 20th and early 21st century does not operate as it did in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The historical clock cannot be turned back, the division of the world between capitalist powers already took place. Today’s conditions and geopolitical dynamics are not the same as those of Lenin’s time.
There is only one imperialist nexus in the world now and it is centered around US unipolar global domination and their neoliberal hegemony. All actors that work against this hegemony are by necessity anti-imperialist. This new anti-imperialist camp is ideologically and politically heterogenous and includes socialist states like China, semi-peripheral capitalist states like Russia, and peripheral, underdeveloped states in the global south that are rebelling against neo-colonialism.
except this is not an inter-imperialist conflict; modern Russia isn’t anti-imperialist in ideology but it is in practice, at least for the time being
I think the main problem here is the “we will ban you if you don’t fall in line” on a take that’s not even that good to begin with.