Memes

Imperialism is an economic relationship, it's not just when countries go to war. Using financial tools (loans, bonds, restructuring, etc) to trap an imperialized nation in underdevelopment and dependency, servicing debts instead of reinvesting in the nation.

You know who is trapping Ukraine in debt right now? Here's some highlights: $23.6 billion in external bonds denominated in dollars and euros, $16 billion to the IMF, and $7.5 billion to a bunch of Western countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Britain and the United States). Private lenders got in on the game too, the largest creditor being $700 million owed to U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill. Overall their external debt adds up to $104.8 billion.

Never let a good crisis go to waste.

Oh, and how much does Ukraine owe to Russia? A $3 billion bond and a $600 million loan owed to Russia. A drop in the ocean. Isn't that interesting?

Fascism requires repression of the working class and a the private ownership of finance capital. Russia doesn't particulary repress its workers (not anymore than the west at least), and banks are government controlled. Russia is a bonapartist bourgeoise state, but not fascist.

As for Imperialism: https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/imperialism.pdf Happy reading.

Here you go: https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Imperialism#Russian_%22imperialism%22