This article is our reply to the flawed analysis of the KKE in reducing everything to inter-imperialist rivalry.
Capitalist countries can be on the correct side of history as has been evidenced most notably during the World War II era when the US and UK joined the USSR in the fight against fascism. These countries’ motives were aligned with their own national interests and to their own capitalist class, but joining the Anti-Fascist Forces during World War II was progressive.
Similarly, it is obvious that Russia, like all capitalist countries, is controlled by oligarchs operating to benefit the few rather than the majority. As materialists, we also see that, under Putin, Russia has taken significant steps to stand up to the US, EU, NATO, and the G7.
The 2014 Euromaidan coup and a path to join NATO set the stage for a civil war in the Ukraine and fulfillment of the dangers laid out by CIA Director William Burns in a 2008 cable titled “Nyet Means Nyet: Russia’s NATO Enlargement Redlines”i which was released by Wikileaks and showed that NATO was aware that Russia saw eastern expansion of NATO as military aggression which would split the Ukraine leading to a civil war which would create an “opening for Russian intervention.” This cable also showed the risk of “new member countries ‘rewrit[ing] history and glorify[ing] fascists’” without repercussions because they were protected by NATO.
Russia’s Special Military Operation can be judged in many ways. However, we cannot overlook the fact that Russia took the initiative and risk to stand up to NATO’s bullying. Russia saw the broken promises and understood the implications of an eastern expansion of NATO. They did not want to become the next Yugoslavia, Iraq, or Libya and took a different path.
In an attempt to weaken the economy of Russia after the beginning of the Special Military Operation, the West has enacted sanctions, and a price cap of $60 a barrel was placed on Russian crude oil. Russia has sidestepped these limitations while the West shot themselves in the foot, struggling with inflation and a high cost of oil products, especially in Europe. According to the IMF, GDP growth in Russia outpaced the US, Germany, France, and the UK for 2023. This growth has opened the door for an end to US sanctions on Venezuelan oil, and Russia is working with People’s China to move past the petrodollar. BRICS is expanding, and is providing an alternative to NATO and the West.
We must recognize that the US and NATO have held a world-wide monopoly and dictated the affairs of all other nations. They work to ensure that, across the globe, countries manage their economies according to the interest of US imperialism, and they hinder all competition to their global hegemony. They Shall Not Pass supports Russia in its quest for a multipolar world because it provides working people around the world, and the leadership of their countries, an escape from the gripped fist of NATO.
