Russian Maoist Party - Theses on the War

March 3, 2022

 

In the current conflict, the Russian Maoist Party (RMP) takes a consistent anti-war and anti-imperialist stance against the warmongers on both sides (NATO/EU and Russia), against Russia's imperialist aggression in Ukraine (the infamous "special military operation" that they cannot even call a war), against the civil war in Ukraine (between Ukraine and the Donbass) in the form of an "anti-terrorist operation" (ATO). Our position was adopted unanimously after a democratic debate.

 

1. If the recognition of the Donetsk Peoples Republic and the Lugansk Peoples Republic by the Russian Federation had been a genuine act of support for the residents of the Donbass, it would have taken place back in 2014. However, eight years of silence and indifference, which the “protectors” today accuse the opponents of the war of displaying, were precisely on the account of Russian imperialism, which used the war in the Donbass as a trump card to put pressure on Ukraine, which had fallen out of its zone of influence. The words about the Russian government's alleged support for the "national liberation movement" in eastern Ukraine are as fake as its promises not to attack neighbouring states, not to raise the retirement age, etc. And a regime that aims to destroy the right of nations to self-determination and dreams of reviving the Russian empire cannot, by definition, be a defender of the oppressed (by the way, what about the recognition of Kosovo, Transnistria and Artsakh?). The longer the bloodshed in the Donbass continued, the more convenient it was for Putin's regime to blame its neighbours and prepare full-scale aggression instead of finding a peaceful solution in eastern Ukraine.

 

2. In eight years, the DPR and LPR have transformed from genuine people's republics into puppet entities completely dominated by Russian capital, with a Russian-style political space, only in a more radical form, and with all-powerful paramilitary formations. Indeed, the Kremlin wants them not as free democratic states, but as "gray zones." And their "recognition" was part of the Special Operation to take over all of Ukraine and turn it into the same thing.

 

3. Apparently, the Kremlin is hoping for a blitzkrieg that will culminate in the establishment of a puppet regime in Kiev. However, this "denazification" operation will lead to a strengthening of nationalist and anti-Russian sentiments in the occupied country, turning it into an analogue of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. It should be recalled that NATO's invasion of Yugoslavia in 1999 was also "justified" by the need to overthrow the Milosevic regime, which had bombed Kosovo. They even called it a "humanitarian intervention."

 

4. Western imperialism, with its sanctions against the Russian Federation, refuses military aid to Ukraine despite Kiev's "political" support, apparently fearing the aggressor's nuclear status and Putin's unpredictable actions if cornered by more decisive measures with the start of an open war. U.S. imperialism and especially the EU are likely to adopt a wait-and-see approach, forcing the Kremlin, which is oppressed by "soft" economic sanctions, to be accommodating on their terms in the long run with respect to the hydrocarbon trade. It is possible that in the long run negotiations will begin along the lines of "gas at our price in exchange for Ukraine with your administration." That is, in such a scenario Ukraine would again become a victim of collusion between imperialists.

 

5. Those leftists who now support Russian aggression are making a mistake. They are making the same mistake as those who rejoiced in the deaths of civilians in the geopolitical carnage in the Donbass in recent years. It is possible that if the current adventure is successful, Putin and his capitalist-bureaucratic regime, which has declared itself the "true" decommunizer of Ukraine, will not only dismantle statehood and sovereignty in one country, but will also seek to restore Russian Empire 2.0 in other "historic" areas. Given this, it is obvious that Russian imperialism is not interested in "denazification" but in the enslavement of peoples. What this will look like can be seen in the situation of the working masses in Russia, where police violence, the normalization of torture, the dismantling of remaining rights and freedoms, censorship, the de facto destruction of the autonomy of national republics, the imposition of clericalism, discriminatory archaic values such as the attack on feminism, the crushing of human rights movements, and systemic hostility to migrants, together with the acquiescence of the extreme right, are the order of the day. In other words, to believe that the Russian Federation is truly "denazifying" Ukraine is like casting out the devil with Beelzebub.

 

6. The true communists today are those who consistently advocate democratic peace between Russia and Ukraine, instead of being parrots of Kremlin imperialism. The building of a mass anti-war movement must become one of the main points of the activities of all left and progressive forces to advance the working people and oppressed peoples of Russia and Ukraine in the struggle against aggression, for the smashing of despotic orders and to build a new world without wars, capitalists and oppressors. But the Kremlin's social-chauvinist support in any form is a contribution to the impoverishment of Russians, because under sanctions the oligarchs will wage war, presumably save on spending on the people, dismantle the infrastructure and develop the regime into a 1970s analogue of right-wing Latin American dictatorships with caveman anti-communism, torture, kidnapping and murder of dissenters, etc.