I would love to hear the thoughts of this leftist community, not least any comrade in Russia. In the US it's so hard to get any serious Russia news/analysis because of the propaganda here- you have red guys that love Russia & Putin to own the libs, and you have blue guys that hate Russia & Putin because it's their favorite boogeyman. I ask because I personally don't like Putin for his war on gayness (wake me up when we get to war of gayness) but I understand that countries in the US's crosshairs are those that make their history under the least self-selected circumstances. I was looking at some stats when this question came to mind:
UA
RU
So material conditions have definitely improved under Putin, which is a miracle considering the fall of the USSR and the disgrace of Yeltsin, which makes me think there are probably people out there who like Putin for rational reasons, besides owning the libs. I would love to hear your thoughts either way.
Russia/Putin only get critical support from leftists because they tend to support the anti imperialist block through trade and weapons sales and by countering NATO.
Putin isn’t doing that because he secretly wants the USSR to return it’s just the position they’re forced into because the west won’t let Russia join as an equal. So they’re in this weird spot of being a capitalist country that would probably be as bad as the US if the had the means but end up being an ally because they’re rejected by the West and don’t have the means to rival the US as a leader of world capitalism.
Material conditions could change in the future though and I’m sure there will be some split down the line between Russia and AES countries unless Russia is able to have a 2nd October revolution.