The Western media is pounding the drum for a conflict between Putin's Russia and
the Western powers over Ukraine. ---- Let us be clear. Vladimir Putin leads agangster regime in Russia, sometimes referred to as a kleptocracy (rule bythieves). He runs an oppressive regime and as an ex-high up in the Russian secretpolice, the KGB, he has extremely close relations with its latest incarnation,the FSB (Federal Service Bureau of the Russian Federation). He has come downheavily on any form of opposition, and the anarchist movement in Russia hassuffered, with anarchist militants, arrested tortured and given heavy prisonsentences. The Putin regime is massing large numbers of troops on Ukraine'sborders for a number of reasons. The domestic situation is far from healthy andthe Covid pandemic has aggravated this. Putin is wary of growing discontent andhopes that his belligerent attitude will unite the Russian masses behind him andmake them forget their economic woes. This is a gamble, as the Russian masses arein general not keen to engage in warfare with their fellow Slavs in Ukraine, andremember the disastrous consequences of the war in Afghanistan, when Russiantroops sent in to save the pro-Russian regime there were bogged down for yearswith massive casualties.With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a number of republics emerged thathad separated from the Russian Federation. Among these was Ukraine, the largestin terms of landmass and the most important in terms of industrial development,an industrial development that had reached its climax under Stalin and hissuccessors.The fall of the Soviet Union seriously weakened Russia but thanks to rising oilprices coupled with the rise to power of Putin, it began to re-assert itself. Itwas determined to control and influence the surrounding countries on its borders,both for defence reasons and to re-affirm its control over those regions which ithad established after World War Two.The political-military alliance it had established with its satellites, theWarsaw Pact, was dissolved. However, the corresponding political-militaryalliance developed by the United States and the Western European powers, NATO,was not wound up and remains an instrument of both the USA and various componentWestern countries. In fact, NATO sought to increase its influence and hasintervened in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Libya. Despite promising the Russian regimethat it would not expand its influence east of what was East Germany, it hasinvested its forces in the countries surrounding Russia, including the Baltic States.NATO is an aggressive military machine, not a body there to passively defend theWest. It has intervened in Libya, in Afghanistan and Iraq. It actively seeks torecruit not just former Soviet republics like Ukraine and Georgia into itsalliance, but also so called neutral countries like Finland and Sweden, both veryclose to Russia. It demands that each component country of NATO spends at least2% of its Gross Domestic Product on military expenditure.At home here, Johnson and the Tories have attempted to divert attention away fromthe whirlpool of scandals that is pulling them down. The British spook agency,MI6, has claimed Russia is preparing to install a puppet regime in Ukraine. TheLabour Party of Keir Starmer have joined in with the sabre rattling.However, NATO itself is unstable. The predominantly Slavic countries of Croatiaand Bulgaria, who have membership of NATO, have indicated that they would send notroops into any possible conflict in Ukraine. Germany, and to a slightly lesserextent France, have shown a reluctance to be involved in this.As for the government in Ukraine, it contains several far right ministers keen onreviving reactionary, fascistic and anti-Semitic sentiment in that region.No taking sides in this conflict. Neither the Putin regime nor the NATO militarymachine and the reactionary Ukrainian government. Mobilisation against any warmoves. Our real enemy is the class enemy, the ruling classes, whether inWashington, Whitehall, Moscow or Kyiv.P.S.In an interview with The Commoner, the Ukrainian anarchist grouping, Assembly,have stated that:"It may surprise you, but we know almost no one here who is interested in suchnews, and even fewer who take it seriously. For the most part, people are worriedabout exorbitant energy bills that are leading to more and more houses havingtheir heating switched off, and enterprises to working or going into the shadowsector precarising their workers. Ukrainian gas is mostly exported to Europe,while energy carriers for power plants are bought from Russia and the occupiedpart of Donbass. So you can imagine why we would be sceptical about these horrorforecasts from the Western press. It's true that we are on the verge of socialcollapse, but it won't be caused by a military conflict... There is no doubt thatPutin's regime is now playing the same role of a continental gendarme as didRussian Tsarism under Nicholas I. You are also absolutely right that before 1917there was 1914, when all of Europe thought that a small victorious war would lasta couple of weeks, only to result in a world-revolutionary wave ending in 1923.With this in mind, we can see why the imperialist politicians and corporationsare wary all the more that a military clash in the very centre of Europe willagain lead to a comparable social explosion in their countries (at least in theUSA - taking into account the rise of revolutionary struggle there during thelast years). So the world leaders intend to divide spheres of influencepeacefully and rattle their weapons just to facilitate their negotiations. Thepandemic has shown that the modern capitalist order is a Colossus with feet ofclay - and the very fact that the world has entered a new era of globalrepartition confirms this with all clarity.For example, Ukraine also conducts military exercises on the Polish border andUkrainian officials glorify those who carried out the genocide of the Polesduring the Second World War. So what - do you really think that Ukraine ispreparing to attack Poland? Neither do we..."https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2022/01/29/ukraine-neither-nato-nor-moscow/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten