this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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I'm not sure how to write this without it sounding like ragebait or a fed post.

But why do most fellow Marxists critically support Russia today?

I can understand having seen Russia as a potential temporary ally or a necessary power that can stand against US / NATO hegemony over the globe. In short I can understand it from a strategic standpoint.

But what about morals of this?

To explain I've seen seen Russia as a necessary potential ally in the past too. But that has changed with the Ukraine war and concurrent events in Russia.

The way I see it, even with a CIA coup, a full scale invasion of a country still isn't justified. It's bordering on insanity in my mind to start such a war. The way the war and conscription is handled in Russia is also highly critiquable. The way people who fall from grace, also "fall out of windows" too.

The other major event that made me doubt Putin more was part of the leaks that happened with Navalny's death. Specifically the revelation of how Putin spend hundreds of millions not just on a palace like so many corrupt leaders and dictators do, but essentially what amounts to an own private town.

This is what lead me to believe that Putin devolved into insanity and paranoia from what he used to be, a calculated sensible dictator.

With all this in mind, why should we offer critical support to Russia instead of Ukraine?

Yes you can argue that Ukraine has been taken over via a pro-western coup regime, but they're still not the aggressors in the war.

I find it morally questionable to support an aggressor in such a clear scenario. And purely strategically speaking with how Russia is bogged down in Ukraine, I find their military capabilities not great either for any conflict with NATO.

Do any of you have any moral reasoning to critically support Russia? Or do you support it out of strategic reasons despite moral objections?

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[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 32 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think what NATO did to Ghaddafi explains Russia's behavior. They could no longer treat NATO as a defensive alliance, it proved itself to be an arm of imperialism. If they allowed Ukraine to become a staging ground for NATO bombers it would be begging for color revolution. They couldn't just wait, they had to act preemptively.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

NATO was never an defensive alliance, USSR at the time of its forming had no doubt about that, Warsaw Pact was a defensive alliance created explicitly as defense from NATO. And later history proven this to be 100% correct.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Sure, NATO didn't transform into a tool of imperialism, it merely revealed itself to have always been a tool of imperialism.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, but this revelation is repeated every single time NATO does anything, some people like Molotov got it even before its creation and some people like every fucking lib out there never get it even when it's right in their face like the cake toss.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Putin himself expressed desire for Russia to join NATO as late as 2000, and in 2005 he said that Russia would respect Ukraine's choice to join NATO. Those aren't the actions and words of someone who understands what NATO is.

Was this rhetoric? Maybe, but I don't think so. I think the bombing of Libya was when everything changed. Only a few years after that, Crimea was annexed.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

Yes, Putin is a lib but the fact he can learn politics and history, even late, rather than never still put him in entire another cathegory.

We were libs of this or that kind too once :(