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Kagarlitsky has taken a very optimistic standpoint here, as I feel that there are two competing agendas afoot in Eastern Ukraine, one, a class-based one, which we would support, and another, a Russian nationalist one, which I hope we would reject. There will inevitably be fears, quite justified, that the austerity measures that the new Kiev government is promising on behalf of Western financial organisations, will hit hard in Eastern Ukraine, and will threaten jobs as the industries there are exposed to the world market. The sight of the Ukrainian far-right providing the muscle that deposed Yanukovich's government, their growing infiltration into the police and militia and their prominent inclusion in the Cabinet cannot be a happy one, particularly with their strong anti-Russian chauvinism. However, Kagarlitsky downplays the impact of Russian chauvinism that is evident in Eastern Ukraine, and was evident in the Crimea for some time before the referendum and secession. Unless class politics come to the fore, the fears and concerns of people in Eastern Ukraine can be pushed into a chauvinist, anti-Ukrainian direction, and reports I have seen indicate that anti-fascist and anti-Western slogans can be deployed by Russian nationalists for their own purposes. The call for autonomy of Eastern regions of Ukraine could, and will if the Russian nationalists make the running, lead to discrimination against Ukrainians, reports from the Crimea about the treatment of Tartars do not augur well in this respect. Altogether, Kagarlitsky is taking the sort of romantic view of events in Eastern Ukraine as some people did with the Maidan protests: presenting the positive aspects as the predominant tendency whilst downplaying the negative and dangerous sides. And just as the Maidan protests ended up with the Ukrainian far-right making considerable gains and with a government pledged to austerity, the positive aspects of current developments in Eastern Ukraine might be submerged by a wave of very nasty Russian nationalism. Paul F ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
