On Friday, Russia’s parliament passed a law threatening 15-year jail sentences for critics of the war on Ukraine — but on Sunday, thousands still took to the streets in protests. We spoke to Russian socialists about why they’re refusing to give in.
Opposing Vladimir Putin’s horrific war in Ukraine is no reason to target ordinary Russians or Russian culture. Anti-Russian bigotry won’t bring peace to Ukrainians.
Today's election in Russia will bring another empty political spectacle to a close. But the contest over the country’s future will just be getting started.
Several tensions run deep in Russian society: Politics are decided by elections without democracy. A growing number of Russian billionaires have outlandish wealth but no political power. And Putin is a populist without the people.
The Minsk Agreements were meant to ease conflict in the Donbas, only to be torn to shreds by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A diplomat involved in the Minsk process tells Jacobin why it failed, and what chance diplomacy has of de-escalating the war.
Walden Bello is one of the world’s leading critics of corporate globalization. In an interview with Jacobin, he explains why Russia’s war is a shock to the international system — and why it is likely to accelerate China’s rise.
John Reed penned the definitive account of the October Revolution — and paid a heavy price for it.
Vladimir Putin’s invasion was meant to last just a few days. But Ukrainian resistance turned it into yet another imperial quagmire — showing that the great powers aren’t as able to reshape the modern world as they think.
Like the Tea Party in the Obama years, liberals lament a country they no longer recognize — and go hunting for foreign culprits to blame.
This past weekend’s attempted insurrection in Russia is a reminder of the self-defeating stupidity of Vladimir Putin’s invasion. It should also be a reminder of the profound dangers of attempting to carry out regime change.
From the IMF to Goldman Sachs, concerns that US sanctions on Russia could undermine the dollar’s global dominance are growing.
Sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, a prominent Russian Marxist imprisoned by Vladimir Putin’s government on false charges, has had his appeal denied. He deserves our solidarity.
The latest escalation in the Ukraine crisis requires us to hold two ideas at the same time: that Vladimir Putin bears much responsibility for the immediate crisis, and that the long-standing US refusal to accept limits to NATO expansion helped bring it about.
The Russian Revolution led to revolutionary upheaval in countries far beyond Russia. Looking at Russia’s imperial borderlands like Finland suggests that socialist struggle can look wildly different in autocratic versus parliamentary conditions.
The Western sanctions against Russia are widely being called an unprecedented move. But the major mechanism they use has been road-tested throughout a decade of eurozone crisis — and threatens economic devastation far beyond Russian elites alone.
Vladimir Putin is presiding over Russia's economic crisis with an iron fist. Can the Left present a viable challenge?
Liberal conspiracy theorists are using Russiagate to smear Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein. How long until they come for you?
In Ukraine, organized labor has rallied behind the resistance against Russia’s invasion. But rather than reward its contribution, the government is using the war to push through anti-labor measures, posing a long-term threat to workers’ right to organize.
The Civil War of 1917–21 brought the third wave of pogroms in the former Russian Empire, mostly perpetrated by the counterrevolutionary forces. But even some Red Army units committed antisemitic atrocities — and independent Jewish socialists played a decisive role in forcing the Soviet state to stop them.
In Georgia, rival bills on “foreign agents” sparked mutual accusations of US and Russian interference. With all politics turned into jockeying over the country’s geopolitical position, discussion of its bleak economic record is quietly suppressed.