Reply To: Russian Tensions

PGB – As you say there are economic factors in any war and Marxists usually highlight these as the root causes of a conflict – the control of the State to benefit its ruling class’s interests.

But to openly declare that people should sacrifice and suffer for the capitalist class – the oligarchs – won’t arouse much sympathy and isn’t a vote winner.

So to mobilise support the conflict is phrased in ideological and identity terms ie nationalism and patriotism.

Was the Russian-speakers a problem prior to 2014? I don’t think it was. Why did it become one?

To polarise the working people into pro-EU and pro-Russia to reflect the different economic interests of the ruling class.

Think Brexit here.

Why did Putin draw the red line of NATO expansion at Ukraine and not earlier with the Baltic nations? Militarily it was an equal threat but was it economically?

People tend to forget that Russia initiated a trade war prior to 2014 to pressure Ukraine into an economic pact with it – the Eurasian Economic Union, a race to the bottom for Ukraine as it competes with the various former Soviet countries that were more Third World.

Some Ukrainian oligarchs would then face the influence of Russian oligarchs encroaching on their markets while other Ukrainian oligarchs saw the advantages of closer ties with the Russian economy.

I suggest that economics was the main instigation for the war – and caused the divisions within Ukraine