Why should we be sorry. Russia brought this on themselves.
I feel sorry for Russian people.
Putin is learning the meaning of FAFO
Russia is broke as fuck and its largest ship in the Baltic Sea is resting on the seabed.
A Frenchman in a rowboat is enough to consider NATO the preeminent military in the waters.
Let’s not get too hyperbolic. The French surrender at the drop of a hat. If we were talking about a Romanian peddle boat, then you may have a point.
Hi, 1960 wants its french slams back.
Ah, the Cold War 2.
Baltic Boogaloo
NATO was becoming increasingly irrelevant until Putin’s “special military operation”. Talk about overplaying your hand.
This is the part that I can’t help but laugh at every time. Russia was slowly gaining a better global image, Russia already had crimea, all Russia had to do was NOTHING, but no. What a bunch of absolute idiots.
Kaliningrad is just a boat dock now.
*Královec
Královec je Čech
Someone told me I wasn’t allowed to post an opinion piece on World News because it wasn’t news. They didn’t agree with the article I posted. It feels like a double standard that they’re not posting the same comment here. (I’m fine with opinion posts BTW)
It’s not marked as an opinion piece by the publishing site. But if it’s against rules, feel free to report it.
If that title is not marked as opinion, the publisher lacks integrity.
Finland has already reached Nato’s agreed defence spending target of 2% of GDP, and Sweden has drawn up plans to do so by 2026.
and the working class pays for it as always
Who else do you want to pay for the defence of a country?
No one. Let the two opposing sides fraternize to take down both their ruling classes.
Because of course people are always reasonable and back people and policies that are in their interest.
It seems like by and large there’s support in Russia for the invasion in Ukraine. They might not be willing to go to full mobilisation, but if they don’t have to die themselves they’re fine with the invasion.
Do you propose that the Ukrainians should stop fighting and plead with the Russian people to overthrow Putin?
If people in Russia “support” the war, it is because the bourgeoisie control the flow of information and education in the country and uses it to instill beliefs in the proletariat that benefit their rule. The ruling class of every country in the world disseminates ideas of nationalism using its vast resource to ensure the population consents to being cannon fodder for “national interests”. In reality the working class shares no interests with its ruling class or “nation” at all.
Capital in Russia isn’t controlled by a bourgeoisie structurally aligned with liberal values as in classic Marxism; it’s controlled by an oligarchy descended partly from imperialist Soviet officials (e.g. Mr. Putin of the KGB) and partly from organized crime.
Sooo… what’s the difference, again?
Capitalists can compete with one another without being thrown out of windows. Oligarchs can’t.
Marxism does not distinguish between capitalism managed by a liberal free market, an oligarchy, or a state. The distinction between them is quite trivial and does not change the analysis.
Your Marxism might not, but actual Marx certainly distinguished between England-style capitalism and what he called the Asiatic mode of production.
Or perhaps people naturally feel an affinity for the place they grew up and the people they are most culturally and socially related to, and are thus liable to feel patriotic about their homelands without any input from, idk, the illuminati or whoever you think controls society
The national bourgeoisie use those patriotic feelings to manipulate the working class into slaughtering their actual brothers and sisters across borders. The people facing the exact same conditions, the exact same assault on their living conditions, the exact same war imposed on them. To be an internationalist isn’t to devalue a connection to the community of fellow workers in your country, it’s to extend it across borders.
The national bourgeoisie use those patriotic feelings to manipulate the working class into slaughtering their actual brothers and sisters across borders.
Or perhaps different countries have different geopolitical interests which sometimes drive them to inflict violence upon eachother in pursuit of those interests
The people facing the exact same conditions, the exact same assault on their living conditions, the exact same war imposed on them.
Sweden and Finland have massively better living conditions than Russia and both have governments which were elected by the people. The illuminati you speak of are also either not very strong there or are incredibly benevolent considering how good the social programs are.
Ukraine and Russia were both victimized heavily by socialists, causing their shitty economic system today, but Ukraine is attempting to align itself with the west, geopolitically and economically, so that it can reap the same economic benefits that the rest of their brothers in Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Western Europe, North America, and Asia are all reaping from having free market economies and extensive international trade. The oligarchs in control of Russia don’t like this, because Ukraine has too many resources, is too close, and is too geographically valuable to lay outside of their empire, so they impose this war upon the Ukrainian and Russian people so that they can secure their interests. And of course, Ukrainians don’t like this, and neither does the West, so the Ukrainians fight back and we help them.
To be an internationalist isn’t to devalue a connection to the community of fellow workers in your country, it’s to extend it across borders.
To be an internationalist is to ignore all of human history and psychology in pursuit of a utopian pipe dream.
How exactly do you believe the countries that have just joined NATO do anything about how the media informs people within Russia? The situation is what it is and all they can do is act to defend themselves, it’s up to the people within Russia to inform themselves better and reappraise their support for Putin and the invasion. Until then they have to be treated as a hostile and rogue nation.
it’s up to the people within Russia to inform themselves better
People in the US certainly didn’t manage that in 2003.
bUt WhAt ABouT IraQ?
Why move on to an unrelated topic from 20 years ago?
Most of Sweden and Finland’s working class supports joining NATO according to polls. Turns out living next to Russia does that to you.
