there is no separation of private/corporate enterprise and the state
This is nonsensical. There’s no such thing as an industrialized society with a clear separation between private enterprise and the state. The state is the backbone of any industrial economy and anyone who knows shit about leftism knows that all capitalist countries are bourgeois dictatorships.
he’s an authoritarian nationalist
This description applies to every head of state. There’s no such thing as a “non-authoritarian” nation-state. Furthermore, Russia has substationally stronger minority rights than the west (where the idea of giving minority rights will get you accused of being racist).
he brutally suppresses dissent and is overtly militaristic
Is this your first year paying attention to politics?
You’re missing the point. Putin is a bourgeois rat (as I like to call him) but supporting Russia is still harm reduction because Russia’s enemies are the imperialists. Literally everyone is better than the imperialists. The imperialists are the bottom of the barrel.
Putin? He’s just a typical liberal* in comparison.
Putin is also an imperialist. I don’t see it as harm reduction so much as harm prolongation. We need better ideas, we need to communicate them and we need to stand behind them. As soon as you devolve into lesser evil tribalism you’ve destroyed any chance of meaningful change.
Russia is not an imperialist country. Not only does it lack control over the world financial system, but it also is not extracting surplus value from the world.
Only a handful of countries even have the ability to enact imperialist surplus extract. It is American/European/Japanese firms which hold monopoly positions. It is America who gets to export its government debt in the form of US T-bonds that everyone is forced to buy. It is the US/EU which can create any protectionist trade policy they want while forcing structural adjustment programs onto the third world (aka forcing 3rd world countries to sell off public assets to US/EU capital in exchange for hard currency).
A country’s currency is the symbol and source of its imperial power. The countries with “hard currencies” are the imperialists who can dictate the economy of the world and leech off it. Meanwhile Russia’s currency becomes worthless in the global market by a simple sanction, and the imperialists steal 300 billion USD foreign reserves of Russia.
The idea of modern Russia being an imperialist power is just wrong and not supported by facts. Their class position is as imperialist as my class position is bourgeois*.
It would be if it could be. It tries in every arena but it’s just too weak to succeed. I don’t really see the point of swapping one piece of shit for another.
They literally have private mercenary armies running around Africa fucking shit up. I mean the US does too but it’s clear to any neutral observer that Russia use their power in a similar manner to the US to the best of their capabilities.
Can you explain how Russian mercenaries are “fucking shit up?” Who are they fighting, and who are they allied with? Fighting itself is not inherently bad, it isn’t just because the US fights that they are bad, it’s that the US uses millitary force to subjugate the global south and cement the system by which wealth is expropriated to the global north. Russia does not do that.
This is nonsensical. There’s no such thing as an industrialized society with a clear separation between private enterprise and the state. The state is the backbone of any industrial economy and anyone who knows shit about leftism knows that all capitalist countries are bourgeois dictatorships.
This description applies to every head of state. There’s no such thing as a “non-authoritarian” nation-state. Furthermore, Russia has substationally stronger minority rights than the west (where the idea of giving minority rights will get you accused of being racist).
Is this your first year paying attention to politics?
You’re not refuting any points I made though. Everything you and I have said is true.
You’re missing the point. Putin is a bourgeois rat (as I like to call him) but supporting Russia is still harm reduction because Russia’s enemies are the imperialists. Literally everyone is better than the imperialists. The imperialists are the bottom of the barrel.
Putin? He’s just a typical liberal* in comparison.
*liberal in the non-prejorative ideological sense
Putin is also an imperialist. I don’t see it as harm reduction so much as harm prolongation. We need better ideas, we need to communicate them and we need to stand behind them. As soon as you devolve into lesser evil tribalism you’ve destroyed any chance of meaningful change.
Russia is not an imperialist country. Not only does it lack control over the world financial system, but it also is not extracting surplus value from the world.
Only a handful of countries even have the ability to enact imperialist surplus extract. It is American/European/Japanese firms which hold monopoly positions. It is America who gets to export its government debt in the form of US T-bonds that everyone is forced to buy. It is the US/EU which can create any protectionist trade policy they want while forcing structural adjustment programs onto the third world (aka forcing 3rd world countries to sell off public assets to US/EU capital in exchange for hard currency).
A country’s currency is the symbol and source of its imperial power. The countries with “hard currencies” are the imperialists who can dictate the economy of the world and leech off it. Meanwhile Russia’s currency becomes worthless in the global market by a simple sanction, and the imperialists steal 300 billion USD foreign reserves of Russia.
The idea of modern Russia being an imperialist power is just wrong and not supported by facts. Their class position is as imperialist as my class position is bourgeois*.
*for the record I don’t own businesses or land.
It would be if it could be. It tries in every arena but it’s just too weak to succeed. I don’t really see the point of swapping one piece of shit for another.
There’s a difference between is and would be, and the difference is that what presently exists is of key importance.
They literally have private mercenary armies running around Africa fucking shit up. I mean the US does too but it’s clear to any neutral observer that Russia use their power in a similar manner to the US to the best of their capabilities.
Can you explain how Russian mercenaries are “fucking shit up?” Who are they fighting, and who are they allied with? Fighting itself is not inherently bad, it isn’t just because the US fights that they are bad, it’s that the US uses millitary force to subjugate the global south and cement the system by which wealth is expropriated to the global north. Russia does not do that.
This is just fan fiction.
When has Russia tried to take over the global economic system? What attempts has it made?
What does this mean? Since when is Russia taking over the governance of Europe even a remote possibility?
So all of the sudden Russia isnt imperialist?