Stopping The War: Right On

 

On the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I wrote a song lyric condemning the invasion called "Bad News Breaking". For some unknown reason, it has proved impossible to publish as a separate page here, but it's not strictly relevant. What matters is the fact that I posted it on a Folk club's Facebook page. Most responses were favourable, and I even received an offer to set the lyric to music - an offer I accepted gratefully.

Interestingly, though, I drew one unfriendly response. The responder commented:

"This is not the black and white situation that the Western politicians/press like to paint it. No! It is a multi-coloured. multi-complex situation. For the sake of the planet, let Russia feel save from Western aggression. It's the Americans who are the real trouble makers..."

With images of the suffering of Ukrainian civilians appearing on the TV and hearing their harrowing stories, I reacted sharply to this by pointing out that it wasn't American troops who'd invaded Ukraine. The responder reacted with anger, but I didn't let myself get drawn in to a social media slanging match. Instead, I decided to look at the alternative view about the invasion, best expressed in the UK by the Stop the War Coalition (STWC). In their statement issued on 24th February, they condemn the invasion, but reserve their main criticisms for NATO, saying:

"The conflict is the product of thirty years of failed policies, including the expansion of NATO and US hegemony at the expense of other countries as well as major wars of aggression by the USA, Britain and other NATO powers which have undermined international law and the United Nations."
They call for the British government to curb the spread of NATO westward and work for a return to the Minsk-2 Agreement, Ted Galen Carpenter on the STWC website, again, says:

"Events during the past few months constituted the last chance to avoid a hot war in eastern Europe. Putin demanded that Nato provide guarantees on several security issues. Specifically, the Kremlin wanted binding assurances that the alliance would reduce the scope of its growing military presence in eastern Europe and would never offer membership to Ukraine. He backed up those demands with a massive military buildup on Ukraine’s borders."

Dissatisfied with NATO's response to his request, Putin launched the present invasion. Elsewhere on its website STWC point out that the USA and its allies, including Britain, have interfered militarily in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya, causing mayhem, instability and bloodshed on a scale that dwarfs the Russian invasion of Ukraine into insignificance. 

My own view is that while STWC might be right in saying that diplomacy and compromise is the way to end this conflict, that is a matter for posterity. Accurate though their analysis may be (or not), it does not help us with the need to protect the territorial integrity of Ukraine or the floods of refugees seeking to escape the war.

As we know, Putin justifies his criminal incursion into Ukraine by claiming he was seeking to liberate the Ukraine from neo-Nazis. There is one unit in the Ukrainian Army made up of right-wing extremists, and they lend a faint vestige of truth to Putin's claim. They are called the Azov Battalion or Regiment and have a ferocious combat reputation. Al-Jazeera comments:

"On Monday, Ukraine’s national guard tweeted a video showing Azov fighters coating their bullets in pig fat to be used allegedly against Muslim Chechens – allies of Russia – deployed in their country."

Some estimates put the number of avowed Nazis in this unit at about 20%. This would appear to give some credence to Putin's claim, but closer inspection proves this to be wrong. There are only about 900 Azov fighters and many of them are foreigners, come to fight the Russians. As the population of Ukraine is about 44 million, this is hardly significant, especially since President Zelenskyy is Jewish. The Azov battalion are an unpleasant bunch, no doubt, but Ukraine needs every fighter it can get.

Putin's claim of liberating Ukraine from Nazism rings somewhat hollow when we bear in mind that he has numerous friends on the Far Right in Europe, and around the world. Two such figures are Marine Le Pen of the French National Front and Matteo Salvini of the Italian Northern League. Both these individuals have enjoyed Putin's hospitality (and funding) in the past; Salvini used to wear a Putin T-shirt. They are now hastily revising their opinion of their erstwhile benefactor. Salvini says:

 “When someone attacks, it is clear that we must be on the side of the one that was attacked,” 

Presumably, he will now revise his opinion of Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia.

Not all far-righties have abandoned Putin. The Times of Israel says:

"Alice Weidel, head of Germany’s far-right AfD party, has denounced the “historical failure” of the West, accusing it of offering Ukraine a perspective of joining NATO rather than pushing for the country to be a neutral buffer nation between the alliance and Russia."

Eric Zemmour, another far-right candidate in France’s April presidential elections, opined that while “Putin is the guilty one, those responsible are in NATO which has not stopped expanding.” Zemmour could almost be speaking for Stop the War Coalition.

Another country where Putin has retained admirers is the USA. The young man in the picture above, Nick Fuentes, leader of the white nationalist America First Party, called for a round of applause for Putin at the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC), held days after the invasion began. As Sergio Olmos, in The Guardian comments:

"Devin Burghart, executive director of Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, said: “In the world of the white nationalists, you are seeing a lot of support for Putin, as expressed by the cheerleading at AFPAC over the weekend.”

Russia and, by association, Putin, is regarded favourably by the far Right in the USA, it seems. David Duke, a leading Ku Klux Klan member, was quoted as saying in 2004 that Russia was "key to white survival". Olmos again: " In 2017 Ann Coulter, a rightwing author and commentator, opined: “In 20 years, Russia will be the only country that is recognizably European.”

Putin's authoritarian style is admired by the US far right, as are his attacks on Russia's LGBTQ community. Most disturbing of all, though, was:

"Burghart says some extremist rightwing militias even see Ukraine as a potential scenario to discuss how to prepare for urban warfare and a future insurgency in the US itself. Instead of horror at the outbreak of brutal urban warfare, some US extremists are obsessed with the idea of a coming civil war in America.
“They see a societal collapse and need to prepare for an impending civil war, and their focus is on preparing for the battles of that here in the US,” Burgheart added.

I don't know what verdict History will pass on Vladimir Putin, but I can guess...