As a socialist and internationalist, I abhor war. But the basic premise of self-determination justifies the resistance of ordinary Ukrainians to Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of our country.
The tsarist empire that preceded the revolutions of 1917 is often thought of as a medieval throwback. Yet reactionaries in Russia also pioneered modern methods of counterrevolution, inspiring Europe’s fascist movements.
Almost a year into Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the state is cracking down ever harder on all signs of dissent. Today exiled or jailed, the Russians who spoke out against the war are key to rebuilding a peaceful, democratic society.
The European Union’s pivot away from Russian fossil fuels is being sold as part of the green energy transition. Yet the plan’s reliance on imports from Morocco and occupied Western Sahara shows how it is driving a new kind of green colonialism.
Founded by a former Bill Clinton aide, Frontera is a failed oil firm known for its bid for domination in the former Soviet Union. Now, US congressmen are trying to stop it being expelled from Georgia — blaming its well-deserved legal woes on “Russian interference.”
It’s impossible to say for certain what could have stopped Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But it is possible to situate the war in recent historical context and game out its geopolitical and economic consequences, including the effects of heavy sanctions.
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will leave ordinary Russians poorer and more isolated. Far from “demilitarizing” Eastern Europe, the war threatens to unleash a wider spiral of militarized chaos.
Russian disenchantment with Western liberalism has produced a worldview hostile to end-of-history triumphalism. The rise of this ideology may be another sign of liberalism’s decline, but its tenets set it at odds with liberalism’s socialist critics.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has produced a moment of unity in the West — and helped Washington reassert its leadership in NATO. With no peace in sight, the war has provided the opportunity to rebuild America’s tattered “informal empire.”
In Russia and occupied Ukraine, many thousands of civilians have been jailed or forcibly disappeared for speaking out against the invasion. The numbers reflect a crackdown on dissent worse than at any point since the 1950s.
The French Communist Party, founded 100 years ago, claimed inspiration from the sailors who refused to fight Soviet Russia. Their Black Sea mutiny showed French workers’ enthusiasm for the Bolshevik Revolution — and their unwillingness to serve as cannon fodder for their own ruling class.
Putin’s disastrous gamble in Ukraine has left the West in a strong position to craft a peace that would underscore the futility of Russia’s aggression. But there are worrying signs that the Biden administration might be unwilling to accept peace on any terms.
Russia has long used breakaway states in Abkhazia and Transnistria to assert military power abroad. Yet the regions’ recent history also shows their growing integration into Western capitalism — and the limits of Moscow’s imperial power.
Both US and Chinese leaders play down the prospects of a new Cold War — but they never sound convincing. Vast shifts in the world economy are driving a new imperialist rivalry, for which a series of regional wars are creating dangerous flash points.
For Richard Pipes, the anticommunist ideologue and historian, Soviet tyranny was rooted not in communism, but in the Russian soul.
With rampant talk of Russian interference, it’s worth recounting Washington's role in undermining Russia’s 1996 election.
Reading the avalanche of pro-NATO coverage after Trump's recent criticisms, you might assume there is no case that NATO is an American imperial project we should dismantle. But there is.
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has opened the floodgates for an outpouring of nationalist hysteria and hatred against a supposed enemy Russian people. Even in countries far from the front line, the war is driving an ugly dehumanization.
The current Ukraine-Russia standoff is the most dangerous European war crisis in decades. Rhetorical grandstanding and the buildup of weaponry risk setting off a devastating explosion. Progressive movements must urgently organize for peace and de-escalation.
There’s a disconnect between Western leaders’ increasingly hawkish public discourse and the quiet consensus among their military experts that any armed encounter with Russia would likely end in a nuclear catastrophe.