John Ebel says: "Putin is certainly an authoritarian but he has been reactive to the belligerence of the United States and NATO..."
I disagree. The full scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was not simply reactive. It was a choice by Putin, the head of an imperialist power, to invade a weaker neighbour. His reasons for doing so may include nervousness about growing Western influence in Ukraine. If so, the invasion has been counterproductive. It has not only created hatred for Russia amongst the people of Ukraine, but also provided an opportunity for NATO to expand, with Sweden and Finland joining. NATO's presence on Russia's border has doubled. Boris Kagarlitsky downplays fear of NATO as a motive for Putin's invasion of Ukraine. He argues that Putin was worried at growing discontent within Russia, and wanted a war to unite the country against an external enemy and orovide a pretext for repression. But whatever the motive, or mixture of motives, the war is a product of Russian imperialism. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is part of a pattern of military intervention in other countries, including Syria and some African countries. See my article "Russian imperialism: economically weak, militarily strong": https://links.org.au/russian-imperialism-economically-weak-militarily-strong See also my discussion of the Maidan rebellion and the anti-Maidan rebellion in Donbas: https://links.org.au/complex-history-eastern-ukraine Chris Slee -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#30718): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/30718 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/106590285/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
