Russia

Posle - On September 21, Vladimir Putin announced the start of mobilization. This step was a direct consequence of the complete failure of Putin's "special operation": the army in its current state is unable to hold the occupied Ukrainian territories, and there can be no talk of a further offensive.

How has the war (once again) made the Russian Communist Party a conservative force? Why should the left in Russia participate in municipal elections? Will mass political movements appear in Russia? Activist and professor of sociology Aleksandra Zapolski and co-founder of the “Nomination” platform and Moscow State University lecturer Mikhail Lobanov share their predictions ahead of the September elections.

Tara Bilous is a Ukrainian socialist, editor of the left-wing publication Commons: Journal of Social Criticism, and an activist with the organization Sotsyalnyi Rukh (“Social Movement”). After Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, Bilous signed up for the Territorial Defense Forces.

Vera Iastrebova, a Donetsk lawyer and labor movement activist, reported on social media on February 26 that mothers and wives in the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” were desperately seeking ways to protect their menfolk from compulsory mobilization in the now-unfolding war.

This article was originally published in 2016, in a special issue of the journal International Critical Thought (vol. 6, no. 4) that addressed the topic of “Russia, Ukraine and Contemporary Imperialism”.

On 31 August 2022, news of Mikhail Gorbachev's death at age 91 filtered into Japan in the midst of sweltering heat and the spread of COVID-19. The Perestroika and Glasnost that Gorbachev carried out after 1985, when he became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, are still praised as full-scale attempts to break away from Stalinism.

The war between Russia and Ukraine has not only destroyed the lives of many thousands in both states, but also dealt a heavy blow to left and left-liberal political discourse in the West. Over the course of many years, ideological clichés have developed and worked successfully, allowing a more or less predictable response to any conflict and crisis in the modern world. We knew for sure that the main source of problems is the policy of the conservative elites of the West, aimed at oppressing the peoples of the global South.

Ebru Günay, spokesperson for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), spoke at a press conference in Amed (tr. Diyarbakir) about Turkey’s continued attacks on northern Syria and speculation about a rapprochement between Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan and his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad.

Hints of a meeting between AKP leader and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, as well as ministerial contacts, have revealed a change in Turkey's Syria policy in recent weeks. But what really changed? Erdoğan continues his attacks and invasion preparations against northern and eastern Syria unabated. The Turkish president sought a "green light" from Russia and Iran. Putin told Erdoğan to clarify this issue with Assad. Erdoğan then changed course. The question now is whether Turkey will be able to reach an anti-Kurdish agreement to invade northern and eastern Syria this way, or whether it will launch an invasion on its own initiative without getting the "green light".

“Stupidity or treason?” asked State Duma deputy Pavel Milyukov in 1916, when the imperial Russian army was in the midst of retreat under the onslaught of the Germans, surrendering city after city along the western borders. A little over a hundred years later, we hear exactly the same exclamations from domestic patriots, complaining that either some secret enemies or incompetent individuals - who have somehow risen to the highest echelons of power - are alone responsible for defeat in the war with Ukraine.