Russian Tensions
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I was referring to the link provided by ALB
Ukrainian official behind Western media reports of Russian atrocities fired by Ukrainian parliament
Also to note the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany has been relieved of duties.
ALB has other posts about the crack-down on internal dissent in Ukraine to ensure that pro-Russian views are suppressed.
>>>Chomsky implies that the best thing for Ukraine to do is to let another state decide its internal affairs in order to avoid Ukrainian suffering. Should this be applied to internal politics as well?
For ourselves, yes it does. The situation of fellow workers in any country is the concern of ourselves as world socialists.
In another aspect, shouldn’t the pandemic have been the responsibility of non-national institutions such as WHO? Shouldn’t the strategies for tackling climate change be outside national politics?
No, you aren’t coming across as hostile. You have been very civil in posing your questions.
I for one won’t claim to have all the answers. But the latest news that Ukraine will not cede any territory in any peace deal is depressing for me.
“Rather than seek an end to the war at the likely expense of territorial concessions to Russia, top Ukrainian officials insisted this week that they can stop Moscow‘s advance. They said their army is capable of a significant counteroffensive to push Russian troops out of Mariupol, Kherson and other captured cities.”Does that also include Crimea and the already seceded regions? No international border is sancrosanct.
I have been very critical of Hezbullah whose reason to exist as a separate military is their claim that the Shebaa Farms district, several sq miles, is still under occupation and thus justifies them as a national liberation militia.
Again we were presented with just the anti-Russian story but this explains more about the grain being blocked
“Hundreds of mines were dropped in the Black Sea by both sides. Ukraine has refused to demine the area out of fear that Russia might then stage an amphibious assault on cities.”
But now some sort of deal can be achieved
https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-russia-near-deal-on-grain-exports-says-un/a-62463430
Chris Hedges on NATO
“It is quite a record for a military alliance that with the collapse of the Soviet Union was rendered obsolete and should have been dismantled. NATO and the militarists had no intention of embracing the “peace dividend,” fostering a world based on diplomacy, a respect of spheres of influence and mutual cooperation. It was determined to stay in business. Its business is war. That meant expanding its war machine far beyond the border of Europe”
https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/nato-most-dangerous-military-alliance/
Also see this
I don’t think that too much should be read into the Ukrainian regime’s declarations that it won’t “cede” any territory to Russia, ie legally and formally transfer territory to Russia under international law. Nobody expects them to do that, not even Russia.
So this is a bit of a red herring. The fighting can stop without this with the Ukraine regime accepting that, as a matter of fact if not of law, that some of its territory remains occupied by Russia. This has been the case with regard to Crimea since 2014. Ukraine hasn’t ceded this to Russia and probably never will but in practice has accepted the situation.
Other examples can be found in other parts of the world. Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem for instance.
In other words, the war could come to an end without Ukraine having to “cede” any territory. And probably will, when the USA feels that it has weakened Russia enough, which is its declared primary aim.
Meanwhile of course the death and destruction continues.
An article on the role of Western media.
Both sides are engaged in a propaganda war and both are involvedfalse reporting.
However, the difference is that we are not exposed to Russia’s loaded message and the Russian population does not receive the West’s news outlets. There exists a separate reality for people.
Our forum discussions are irrelevant and insignificant and our blog-posts and the articles in the Socialist Standard are invisible.
But what else can we do?
We can only clarify the situation for ourselves as events take place.
Putin has signed into law tougher measures for individuals or entities considered “foreign agents” by Russia, as well as a new law equating defection with high treason.
The new bill, which will come into force on 1 December, will broaden the definition of “foreign agents” to anyone deemed to have fallen “under foreign influence” or receiving support from abroad – not just foreign money.
Putin also signed off on a bill introducing prison terms of up to seven years for calls to act against national security, as well as a law which expands criminal liability for defection to the side of an enemy during combat to high treason.
The Russian leader also signed a law allowing the government to introduce special economic measures to support the Russian armed forces during “counter-terrorism and other operations” outside the country.
The Russian terms for peace?
A top Russian official has said Ukraine must accept the “territorial realities” of the situation in order to resume peace negotiations with Moscow, Reuters reports.
Kyiv must provide a clear response to Moscow’s proposals that Ukraine accepts “non-aligned” and “non-nuclear” status in order to strike a peace deal, Russian deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko was cited as saying.
Ukraine must also recognise Russia’s control over Crimea and the status of the pro-Russian self-proclaimed “people’s republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk
“Our forum discussions are irrelevant and insignificant and our blog-posts and the articles in the Socialist Standard are invisible.
“But what else can we do?
“We can only clarify the situation for ourselves as events take place.”I agree. It’s important we (i.e. real socialists) keep in touch with each other, or else we’d go insane. These forums (in particular) are very good for mental health.
The Socialist Standards; pamphlets; and blog-posts are very interesting and do a lot to make sense of this mad world. I find it very handy to share a link to a pamphlet (on a given topic) to the unconverted on social media.
One silver lining is that due to the materialist conception of history, and because capitalism is unsustainable, it’s a question of WHEN the socialist revolution will happen, not ‘if’.
“Kyiv must provide a clear response to Moscow’s proposals that Ukraine accepts ‘non-aligned’ and ‘non-nuclear’ status in order to strike a peace deal, Russian deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko was cited as saying.
“Ukraine must also recognise Russia’s control over Crimea and the status of the pro-Russian self-proclaimed ‘people’s republics’ in Donetsk and Luhansk.”
Those are reasonable peace terms. Well, they’re much more reasonable than half, or the whole, of Ukraine being annexed into the Russian Federation. But, of course, they don’t justify the dropping of a single bomb, nor the shedding of a single drop of blood.
The Russian propaganda channel has advertised that Russia has adopted a raft of restrictive legislation: it might be signalling a willingness to be in this for the long haul, especially a law for effective military requisition of goods.
https://www.rt.com/russia/558973-criminal-code-amendments-treason/
Russia has introduced more severe punishments for actions that it considers detrimental to its national interests, such as joining the enemy during wartime or fighting against the country in foreign armed conflicts. The legislation was signed into law by President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
https://www.rt.com/business/558980-putin-law-domestic-firms-military/
According to the legislation, Russian companies are now banned from refusing military contracts while such operations are ongoing. Mentioned in the document as covered under the provision are contracts for the purchase of goods and services for army use, as well as those aimed at creating stockpiles of products, raw materials and semi-finished goods for defense orders.
https://www.rt.com/russia/559000-media-law-retaliation-foreign/
According to the law, “if a ban (restriction) is imposed on the activity of a Russian media outlet within the territory of a foreign state,” the prosecutor general and deputies may apply similar measures to that country’s media outlets operating in Russia, resulting in “the termination of the correspondents’ accreditation,” revoking of registration or licenses, and the closure of offices.
The second one is standard in other countries. When Macron said recently that France had to adapt to a “war economy” this was part of what he seemed to be envisaging;
“According to Le Monde newspaper, the government’s armament agency DGA is considering a draft law that would allow the requisitioning of civilian equipment or civilian factories to make weapons.”
It looks as if EU governments are beginning to have second thoughts about just how much pain they can inflict on their population to help Ukraine’s war effort:
If the war isn’t settled by winter the pain can be expected to get much worse with energy rationing as well as higher prices.
While in some parts of the world the result will be bread riots, in Europe it is likely to be pain-inflicting governments losing support or being voted out of office. Already, the main winners of the French elections were two parties opposed to the war while in Italy the government is on the verge of collapse because one of the partners wants to give priority to dealing with the problems of Italians.
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