Why Putin invaded: a socialist analysis Mike Phipps reviews *Making sense of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine* by Paul Le Blanc Labour Hub, Feb. 12, 2024 https://labourhub.org.uk/2024/02/12/why-putin-invaded-a-socialist-analysis/
Two years ago Russia’s invasion of Ukraine took many by surprise. Very quickly, pro-NATO pundits on one side and Putin apologists on the other trotted out their explanations. The great strength of this short book is that it foregrounds the analyses of Ukrainian socialists. Hanna Perekhoda, for example, suggests that developments in an independent Ukraine pose a destabilizing threat to the Putin regime’s control of Russian society. To the extent that Ukraine is more free, more democratic and more prosperous than Russia, this threatens to “awaken some dangerous ideas among Russians themselves, who are… tired of the autocratic regime and of the extreme inequality in Russia.” It’s worth remembering that a year before he launched the invasion, Putin’s approval ratings reached their lowest level ever. . . . Others root the conflict in the profound crisis of Russian oligarchic capitalism and the inequality it generated. On this basis, the war on Ukraine is “a war of the Russian regime against its own society.” The conflict has enabled Putin to crush all domestic opposition and instil a climate of fear and obedience. This point also needs underlining. Far from his suddenly developing a national chauvinist obsession with the historic unity of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples under Moscow’s tutelage, Putin’s war has important economic roots. It represent the collective interests of the Russian ruling class, who need to expand the terrain on which oligarchic capitalism can operate, and institutionalise and perpetuate the violence needed to shore up its power, as in other post-Soviet states. . . . *Making Sense of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine* by Paul Le Blanc, Resistance Books, UK, November 2023 https://resistancebooks.org/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#29102): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/29102 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/104544417/21656 -=-=- 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]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
