Europe Backdrop to the war in Ukraine

[Gethelred]

This is the thread for the geopolitics, history and framework around the Russia-Ukraine conflict. If you want to discuss the events of the war, head over to this thread:

Europe - War in Ukraine - Thread 4 - thread rules updated

This is the thread for discussing the War in Ukraine. Should you want to discuss the geopolitics, the history, or an interesting tangent, head over here: https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/backdrop-to-the-war-in-ukraine.1302028/ If a post isn't directly concerning the events of the war or...

www.bigfooty.com

 

[Chief]

Even though Gorbachev, Yeltsin and then Putin opened the doors to capitalism,

I haven't studied the history, but this doesn't seem to have been the case entirely.

I don't buy the idea that the Evil West is responsible for it all.

Didn't the oligarchs loot the carcass of the Soviet Union? Haven't they just been exporting money to safer economies and not developing and investing enough to keep their industries efficient? From what I have read and watched, Putin controls the oligarchs, with a number of examples given from over the years.

 

[jatz14]

Let's have a look at the history of NATO, since there are many here who claim that the expansion of NATO is some kind of benign tendency aiming only to counteract the evil Putin regime.

NATO was founded in 1949 less than four years after the end of World War II, in the initial years of the Cold War, as an alliance aimed against the Soviet Union.

At the time it was established, the claim was made that NATO was an alliance purely to serve the "defence" and "security" of Europe. This was a lie, from the very beginning.

At the same time as NATO was founded, the Chinese revolution had just triumphed. All the imperialist member nations of NATO pursued brutal unrestrained violence in colonial wars in Indochina, Korea, Algeria, Africa and beyond. NATO supported right wing coups in Greece and Turkey, and against left wing nationalist governments in Latin America.

In 1991, the Soviet Union was liquidated by its own ruling elite, and the Warsaw Pact was also dissolved. However, NATO did not dissolve itself, despite the fact that it justified its own existence on the threat supposedly posed by the Soviet Union.

And this is because, in fact, NATO was not fundamentally directed against just the Soviet Union. It was a vehicle through which US and European imperialism ultimately aimed to resubjugate world after their temporary retreat post WW2 caused by the successful colonial revolutions of the 60's and 70's which led to the former colonies establishing a certain, very limited degree of resistance to the ravages of imperialism.

Imperialism never gave up on its drive to take revenge on the Russian Revolution, and subject the former Soviet Union to colonial domination. Even though Gorbachev, Yeltsin and then Putin opened the doors to capitalism, this was not enough. The imperialists have never relinquished their aim to batter the doors entirely down. They failed the first time when they organised the intervention of the White Armies, and have been waiting for the opportunity ever since.

America’s European allies, pursuing their own imperialist interests, followed its lead. NATO is the instrument with which they pursue this goal. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, NATO or its members have been waging war practically without interruption.

Let's look at the record of NATO, - supposedly according to the posters here, an institution for "democracy and freedom"

The US first attacked Iraq in 1990. In 1999, NATO bombed Serbia without a UN mandate—in violation of international law—and forced the secession of Kosovo. In 2001, NATO invoked the mutual defence clause, for the first and only time, and occupied Afghanistan, conducting a war that lasted 20 years and ended with the destruction of the country and the return of the Taliban. Although subsequent wars against Iraq, Libya and Syria took place outside the official NATO structures, they were supported by most NATO member states.

Parallel to the wars in the Middle East, NATO systematically advanced towards Russia and incorporated the whole of Eastern Europe and—with the Baltic states—parts of the former Soviet Union.

The world’s most powerful military alliance grew from 12 to 32 members. Last year, it spent $1.3 trillion on defense, or 60 percent of global military spending. The US military budget alone totalled $905 billion, more than the next 15 countries combined. In contrast, China only spent $220 billion and Russia $109 billion on defense.

From its very inception, NATO was a vehicle aiming to spearhead imperialist domination.

With this historical record, the claims that NATO is only concerned about "freedom and democracy" for the people of Ukraine are contemptible and laughable.

Drivel.