Eirik Leivestad: The war for democracy
The governments now sanctioning Russian oligarchs forget to mention that it was the free-market policies of the ’90s that created them. In order to regain the initiative after misreading Russia’s aggression, the Left needs to point out how the war for democracy in Ukraine is part of its own struggle for global justice in the 21st century. We really didn’t see this coming. Even when Russia’s mobilisation on Ukraine’s border had reached a level that made military invasion look inevitable, many of us didn’t actually believe it. Putin’s decision to invade still seems like a gross strategic misstep. Yet it has also been a reality check to us all.
In the weeks prior to
the invasion, there was an eagerness in the West to take a ‘contrarian’ stance
and consider Putin’s manoeuvres as a legitimate reaction to western security
policies. Some of his apologists were motivated by pragmatic concerns, others
were ideological. Many leftists stuck to the script that the US and NATO were
the aggressors. They have had to realise in hindsight that by echoing the
‘spheres of influence’ doctrine and the narrative about justified security
interests, they were serving as mouthpieces for Kremlin propaganda…
https://www.eurozine.com/the-war-for-democracy/
P.B.
Mehta: Ukraine invasion has revealed a new world disorder
10 Theses on the Proliferation of Egocrats
(1977)
Ukraine:
India refuses to take a clear position on the Russian invasion
