AmilcarCabral
24th March 2014, 03:56
Putin's speech – a Manifesto of Russian imperialist ambitions
The implications of the Ukraine crisis go well beyond the Ukraine and bring to the fore forcefully Russia's ambition to restore her historical sphere of influence.
Putin warned that all Russian-speaking minorities in former Soviet Union republics, as in Ukraine, will be regarded as part of a single Russian nation. This would represent the basis for future Russian interventions across the board, although not necessarily by military means. Should their interests be threatened Russia might take measures to ensure their protection. One of the ideas that Putin has been toying with is to extend Russian citizenship to ethnic Russians and Russian speakers throughout the former Soviet Union, thus legalising the right of Russia to use them as a justification for exerting more influence on the countries that host them.
The most explosive cases are the Russian speaking enclave of Trans-Dniester in Moldova, which has also recently asked to join Russia, and the major unsolved problem of the status of Russian speakers in the Baltic republics, which is particularly delicate because the Baltic republics are the only former Soviet republics that now are part of the EU and NATO.
The competition between the West and Russia is bound to spill over and escalate throughout the whole region. The Russian blitz on Georgia in 2008, matched by the Crimean crisis now, revealed already at the time that the USA were unable to defend even a country that was just about to join NATO.
What consequences within Russia?
Russia is the most unequal country in the world, according to the annual Global Wealth report published by Credit Suisse last October. A mere 110 Russian citizens now control 35 percent of the total household wealth across the country. This statistic alone provides a glimpse of the level of looting ordinary Russians have had to put up with since capitalist restoration. Putin is not the representative of the interests of ordinary Russian people, but of the elite, the capitalists, the military hierarchy and upper echelons of the state apparatus.
The Crimean crisis has given Putin a new lease of popular support, but the effect will not last forever. For ordinary Russians the reality of life is too hard to be ignored for too long. Over the past year an increasingly radical mood has been developing in Russia amongst the youth and criticism of corruption and inequality has become more widespread. In Putin's speech there is a clear warning that the elite is preparing to use the current situation of confrontation with US imperialism to their advantage on the home front, if need be:
“Some Western politicians are already threatening us with not just sanctions but also the prospect of increasingly serious problems on the domestic front. I would like to know what it is they have in mind exactly: action by a fifth column, this disparate bunch of ‘national traitors’, or are they hoping to put us in a worsening social and economic situation so as to provoke public discontent? We consider such statements irresponsible and clearly aggressive in tone, and we will respond to them accordingly.”
What Putin is hinting at is that social unrest will not be tolerated. In the next period it will become clearer to anyone in Russia what this means in practice. The ruling class will resort to any means at their disposal in order to defend their privileges if the workers and youth of Russia dare demand better conditions for themselves. We are confident the workers in Russia and internationally will respond to the capitalists accordingly.
http://www.marxist.com/russian-annexation-of-crimea-what-consequences-for-world-relations.htm
.
The implications of the Ukraine crisis go well beyond the Ukraine and bring to the fore forcefully Russia's ambition to restore her historical sphere of influence.
Putin warned that all Russian-speaking minorities in former Soviet Union republics, as in Ukraine, will be regarded as part of a single Russian nation. This would represent the basis for future Russian interventions across the board, although not necessarily by military means. Should their interests be threatened Russia might take measures to ensure their protection. One of the ideas that Putin has been toying with is to extend Russian citizenship to ethnic Russians and Russian speakers throughout the former Soviet Union, thus legalising the right of Russia to use them as a justification for exerting more influence on the countries that host them.
The most explosive cases are the Russian speaking enclave of Trans-Dniester in Moldova, which has also recently asked to join Russia, and the major unsolved problem of the status of Russian speakers in the Baltic republics, which is particularly delicate because the Baltic republics are the only former Soviet republics that now are part of the EU and NATO.
The competition between the West and Russia is bound to spill over and escalate throughout the whole region. The Russian blitz on Georgia in 2008, matched by the Crimean crisis now, revealed already at the time that the USA were unable to defend even a country that was just about to join NATO.
What consequences within Russia?
Russia is the most unequal country in the world, according to the annual Global Wealth report published by Credit Suisse last October. A mere 110 Russian citizens now control 35 percent of the total household wealth across the country. This statistic alone provides a glimpse of the level of looting ordinary Russians have had to put up with since capitalist restoration. Putin is not the representative of the interests of ordinary Russian people, but of the elite, the capitalists, the military hierarchy and upper echelons of the state apparatus.
The Crimean crisis has given Putin a new lease of popular support, but the effect will not last forever. For ordinary Russians the reality of life is too hard to be ignored for too long. Over the past year an increasingly radical mood has been developing in Russia amongst the youth and criticism of corruption and inequality has become more widespread. In Putin's speech there is a clear warning that the elite is preparing to use the current situation of confrontation with US imperialism to their advantage on the home front, if need be:
“Some Western politicians are already threatening us with not just sanctions but also the prospect of increasingly serious problems on the domestic front. I would like to know what it is they have in mind exactly: action by a fifth column, this disparate bunch of ‘national traitors’, or are they hoping to put us in a worsening social and economic situation so as to provoke public discontent? We consider such statements irresponsible and clearly aggressive in tone, and we will respond to them accordingly.”
What Putin is hinting at is that social unrest will not be tolerated. In the next period it will become clearer to anyone in Russia what this means in practice. The ruling class will resort to any means at their disposal in order to defend their privileges if the workers and youth of Russia dare demand better conditions for themselves. We are confident the workers in Russia and internationally will respond to the capitalists accordingly.
http://www.marxist.com/russian-annexation-of-crimea-what-consequences-for-world-relations.htm
.