The cowardly, unprovoked attack on Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s forces has nothing to do with Russia’s so-called security concerns. Instead, the principal aim of the invasion is the destruction of a neighbour’s right to independence and the determination of its own future.
As panic-stricken citizens tried to flee Ukraine’s major cities, Margarita Simonyan, the notorious head of English-language Russia Today, in a sickening, cynical Tweet wrote: “This is a standard [Russian military] parade rehearsal. Except this year we have decided to hold the parade in Kyiv.”
Putin has never accepted Ukraine’s overwhelming backing for independent statehood in the 1 December 1991 referendum when the country was still part of the Soviet Union. Over 92% voted ‘Yes’, including a majority of the Russian-speaking population. By the end of the month, the Soviet Union itself was no more.
Russia’s economy thereafter collapsed under the impact of a neoliberal experiment directed by US right-wing economists. Eventually, state assets were sold off for a song and former ‘communists’ became capitalist oligarchs.
As other countries like Poland and the Baltic States opted for European Union and NATO membership, Russia became a brutal authoritarian regime which murders opponents, rigs elections, shuts down human rights organisations and bans protests. Political leaders like Putin have enriched themselves from deals with a select group of oligarchs.
Ukraine’s “mistake” was to choose a different path. Ukrainians have taken to the streets and squares to overthrow a variety of authoritarian governments. They now cherish open elections, a relatively free media and a thriving civil society. This is what Putin hates – and, above all, fears.
This is the “threat” Ukraine poses – not a military one as Putin and some in the UK like Stop the War claim. Russia has thousands of nuclear weapons while Ukraine got rid of all theirs. On the contrary, Ukraine, with a Jewish, former comedian as president threatens Putin because it has demonstrated that political and democratic alternatives are possible. Of course, Ukraine’s economy is still dominated by oligarchs but at least you don’t go to prison for opposing them.
The invasion has mobilised opposition to Putin’s regime. Thousands of people have been arrested in street protests. They include young children and a 77-year-old survivor of the siege of Leningrad. Celebrities from footballers to actors have spoken out. In retaliation, the Kremlin has shut down radio stations and banned media from describing the assault on Ukraine as an invasion.
It was pretty clear from that mad, televised meeting of his advisers that there was no unanimity even in Putin’s own lickspittles that this was a good idea. They were all looking worried, no doubt about their fortunes and ultimate fate and with good reason. A state system built around personal power and stolen fortunes has no long-term future.
Putin hopes that Great Russian chauvinism and seizing Ukraine’s resources will save him. His imperialist aims are entirely those of the Russian Czars. Putin attacked Lenin’s approach in the creation of the Soviet Union as a voluntary union of republics, blaming him for what eventually became an independent Ukraine. He was right – Lenin staunchly supported the right of nations to self-determination, even if that meant they chose to leave the union.
By raining down missiles on a defenceless Ukraine, Putin has deepened the existing crisis of the entire neoliberal, global order. Here the transnational corporations have rendered political systems ineffectual, undemocratic and incapable of dealing with the threat to human life in the shape of climate change.
The pandemic has exposed brutal social equality that has built up, particularly since the financial crash of 2008 from which capitalism has yet to recover. In Britain, the Tories have been in bed with Putin’s oligarchs to the extent that the capital is sometimes referred to as Londongrad.
Those on the so-called left who support Putin might like to note that they are in agreement with Donald Trump who said the decision to invade showed “savvy”: “This is genius,” he said. It is really important to have a holistic understanding of what is going on – not just think that because Putin denounces “the West”, socialists should support him and his corrupt regime. It is not about the lesser of two evils – why support evil at all?
Meanwhile, the right-wing press in particular is writing about the end of “liberal democracy” in relation to Russia’s attack. Senior Daily Telegraph writer Sherelle Jacobs suggested that what she called the Western elite “now stands by largely divided, compromised and gormless, as Russia smashes international norms”. Of course, she fails to mention the “norms” destroyed by the Anglo-US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan or the storming of Congress by Trump’s supporters.
That “the old liberal order has failed”, as she puts it, is indisputable, although Ukraine is an effect and not a cause. Authoritarian rule is growing everywhere, including in the UK where the state is manipulated for political ends by Johnson’s cabal. This is a sham of a democracy.
Meanwhile, we should:
- demand Ukraine’s right to self-determination and national integrity and to defend itself, irrespective of the nature of the country’s government
- Support the courageous Russians who oppose aggression against Ukraine
- campaign for the UK to exit NATO and to abandon nuclear weapons and oppose Labour leader Keir Starmer’s warmongering
- support the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign which unites UK trade unionists, socialists and Ukrainians against the Russian invasion and war.
We call on you, our readers, to back this campaign which has already had a strong resonance. People in Ukraine’s streets are hugely encouraged by support from the UK.
This article was amended on March 3 to take account of events since it was first published.
Saturday 12 noon demo
The Ukraine Solidarity Campaign has called a demonstration opposite 10 Downing St in Whitehall on Saturday, February 26 for 12 noon. Speakers include John McDonnell MP and Clive Lewis MP.
