I never remember really hearing about Russia and Putin in leftist discourse outside of Trump being a puppet. So I’m unfortunately grossly uninformed about everything. I feel like I’ve been doomscrolling for the past couple days. I thought he wouldn’t invade and now I’m worried he’s going to actually use a nuke somewhere… I hope I’m wrong.
Lol the "trump = putin puppet" take is not leftist at all. It's just something libs think.
The leftist take is that Putin and Trump are both billionaire oligarchs. So they have strong class solidarity that led them to share a mutual interest in continuing to oppress the working class.
But, as Lenin once said, Imperialism is the highest form of Capitalism. Russia is a capitalist country, and after the fall of the USSR it has plunged into hyper-capitalism with a new crop of oligarchs taking control. With declining rates of profit and Russia's main source of income (oil) becoming less valuable, Putin wanted more land and resources and to take control of a key strategic region (starting in Crimea, Russia's entry point to the Mediterranean). Putin is primarily worried about NATO, which began as an anti-USSR alliance but stayed intact after the fall of the USSR. Why? Because in reality it is an anti-Russian alliance. Putin is allegedly very paranoid, and seems to be reacting to the threat of NATO's continued existence by essentially rebuilding the pre-USSR Russian Empire, with himself as the Tsar, turning Belarus and Ukraine into vassal states, and buffer zones.
I never remember really hearing about Russia and Putin in leftist discourse outside of Trump being a puppet. So I’m unfortunately grossly uninformed about everything. I feel like I’ve been doomscrolling for the past couple days. I thought he wouldn’t invade and now I’m worried he’s going to actually use a nuke somewhere… I hope I’m wrong.
Lol the "trump = putin puppet" take is not leftist at all. It's just something libs think.
The leftist take is that Putin and Trump are both billionaire oligarchs. So they have strong class solidarity that led them to share a mutual interest in continuing to oppress the working class.
But, as Lenin once said, Imperialism is the highest form of Capitalism. Russia is a capitalist country, and after the fall of the USSR it has plunged into hyper-capitalism with a new crop of oligarchs taking control. With declining rates of profit and Russia's main source of income (oil) becoming less valuable, Putin wanted more land and resources and to take control of a key strategic region (starting in Crimea, Russia's entry point to the Mediterranean). Putin is primarily worried about NATO, which began as an anti-USSR alliance but stayed intact after the fall of the USSR. Why? Because in reality it is an anti-Russian alliance. Putin is allegedly very paranoid, and seems to be reacting to the threat of NATO's continued existence by essentially rebuilding the pre-USSR Russian Empire, with himself as the Tsar, turning Belarus and Ukraine into vassal states, and buffer zones.