In this exclusive interview, Joti Brar tackles some of the most pressing debates facing the global Left today.______________________________________________S...
Yes I did. You keep posting the same stuff proving western influence in Ukraine sure this is true yet you still fail to respond to my point that Russia is not representing any form of a proletarian struggle against bourgeois influence. Yes it struggles against western bourgeois influence BUT it does that by replacing it with IT’S OWN bourgeois influence! What does it have to do with anything anti imperialist (which means opposition to EVERY foreign bourgeoisie)?
Opposition to imperialism and colonialism is revolutionary and progressive even when it comes from bourgeois forces because it opens the door to proletarian revolutionary forces. Marxist-Leninist theory is very clear about this:
The primary contradiction in the world today is not between workers and peripheral capitalist states like Russia, it is between hegemonic Western imperialism and those resisting it. It is the struggle against neo-colonial subjugation, super-exploitation and underdevelopment.
The biggest global barrier to proletarian revolutions and national liberation worldwide is US and European imperialism.
Russia is allied with or providing aid to every existing socialist or anti-imperialist state. They are directly arming or otherwise supporting the countries that are most acutely struggling against imperialism and colonialism, from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, to Mali and Burkina Faso, to Iran and the DPRK.
But beyond of all that, Russia simply does not fulfil the criteria of the Leninist definition of imperialism, especially not when taking into account how imperialism has changed over the past hundred years:
Stalin talks about national struggles not inter-national struggles. While yes a bourgeois movement can be anti-imperialist it also has to be fighting for the sovereignty of its own country not for foreign soil.
While this war produces some anti-imperialist outcomes, they’re only a secondary effect caused by the nature of inter-imperialist wars where both imperialist sides weaken eachother.
The core nature of this war is only anti-imperialist as far as the class conscious proletariat of each side fights against the imperialist aims of its own state (and their hegemons in the case of Ukraine).
Russia is not waging this war to free Ukrainian people from capital and imperialism as it might claim (if so why is Russia not fighting capitalism within itself?). It’s waging this war to extend the sphere of influence of its own bourgeoisie, hence it’s imperialist despite the side effects
Every war waged between capitalist states (with the exception of national liberatory struggle) is an imperialist war. Funnily enough applying Stalin’s ideas in Foundations of Leninism to the current situation makes the Ukrainian population opposing both western and eastern imperialists the anti-imperialist forces in this war, even if they are influenced by bourgeois ideology (this of course excludes pro-nato (and nato funded…) elements)
It’s waging this war to extend the sphere of influence of its own bourgeoisie, hence it’s imperialist despite the side effects
I swear it’s like you have read absolutely none of the myriad of sources that have been provided for you. None of the serious analysis about this war or its causes supports this infantile view of the war, not even the imperialists’ own internal strategic analysis. Everyone (except the blinded western masses who still consume the western liberal mainstream media’s ridiculous propaganda narratives) understands that this is about Russia’s vital security concerns being trampled and its very existence as a state threatened by NATO expansion. Russia’s people understand this, Russia’s enemies understand this, and Russia’s global south allies understand this. That is why Russia is waging this war.
Every war waged between capitalist states (with the exception of national liberatory struggle) is an imperialist war.
First of all that is overly reductive.
Second of all, for the people of the Donbass this is a war of national liberation. I would seriously suggest that you start listening to what the people actually there on the ground say rather than judging from afar conditions which you do not understand. The people in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics had been begging Russia to intervene for the whole period of the 2014-2022 war that the fascist Kiev regime, which was installed after the Western orchestrated Maidan coup, was waging against them. They were the ones who had to live under bombs, bullets and shells, and when Russia finally launched its long overdue intervention in 2022 those people celebrated.
You can also watch interviews on the street with people from that region. There are thousands on Russian media, but if you don’t trust them search for independent journalists on YouTube such as Patrick Lancaster, look for some of his older videos where he interviews locals. Search for other independent journalists who have covered the conflict and have spoken to locals. Or you can watch one of the documentaries that others have recommended on the Ukraine war megapost.
There are plenty of resources available for you to educate yourself. If you continue to refuse to do so there is no point in continuing this conversation.
Funnily enough applying Stalin’s ideas in Foundations of Leninism to the current situation makes the Ukrainian population opposing both western and eastern imperialists the anti-imperialist forces in this war, even if they are influenced by bourgeois ideology
There are Ukrainians on both sides of this war. It is not “the Ukrainian population” which is choosing to wage this unwinnable war against Russia on behalf of NATO just so that the imperialist West can weaken one of its main rivals, it is a neo-Nazi terrorist regime which is brutally oppressing the Ukrainian population, imprisoning and torturing and murdering dissidents, and forcefully abducting Ukrainians off the streets to send them to the trenches as cannon fodder. You clearly have no idea what you are talking about. This regime is not merely “influenced by bourgeois ideology”, they are outright Nazi worshippers who celebrate WWII Holocaust perpetrator Nazi collaborator war criminals as their “national heroes”. That is who Russia is fighting, not the people of Ukraine.
If you think that Stalin’s writing supports siding with literal fascists who are fighting an imperialist proxy war to ethnically cleanse Russian speakers off of their own land, you are out of your mind.
Yes I did. You keep posting the same stuff proving western influence in Ukraine sure this is true yet you still fail to respond to my point that Russia is not representing any form of a proletarian struggle against bourgeois influence. Yes it struggles against western bourgeois influence BUT it does that by replacing it with IT’S OWN bourgeois influence! What does it have to do with anything anti imperialist (which means opposition to EVERY foreign bourgeoisie)?
Opposition to imperialism and colonialism is revolutionary and progressive even when it comes from bourgeois forces because it opens the door to proletarian revolutionary forces. Marxist-Leninist theory is very clear about this:
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1924/foundations-leninism/ch06.htm
The primary contradiction in the world today is not between workers and peripheral capitalist states like Russia, it is between hegemonic Western imperialism and those resisting it. It is the struggle against neo-colonial subjugation, super-exploitation and underdevelopment.
The biggest global barrier to proletarian revolutions and national liberation worldwide is US and European imperialism.
Russia is allied with or providing aid to every existing socialist or anti-imperialist state. They are directly arming or otherwise supporting the countries that are most acutely struggling against imperialism and colonialism, from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, to Mali and Burkina Faso, to Iran and the DPRK.
But beyond of all that, Russia simply does not fulfil the criteria of the Leninist definition of imperialism, especially not when taking into account how imperialism has changed over the past hundred years:
https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/03/02/is-russia-imperialist/
https://classconscious.org/2025/06/03/is-russia-an-imperialist-power-revisiting-lenin-in-the-21st-century/
https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/analysis/why-russia-and-china-are-not-imperialist--a-marxist-leninist
https://www.ir-press.ru/2025/08/24/russia-not-an-imperialist-country/
The Russian economy is still more akin to that of a neocolonized global south country than to one of an imperialist country.
Unless your definition of “imperialism” is just “when country does things outside of its own borders”, Russian imperialism ended in 1917.
Stalin talks about national struggles not inter-national struggles. While yes a bourgeois movement can be anti-imperialist it also has to be fighting for the sovereignty of its own country not for foreign soil.
While this war produces some anti-imperialist outcomes, they’re only a secondary effect caused by the nature of inter-imperialist wars where both imperialist sides weaken eachother.
The core nature of this war is only anti-imperialist as far as the class conscious proletariat of each side fights against the imperialist aims of its own state (and their hegemons in the case of Ukraine).
Russia is not waging this war to free Ukrainian people from capital and imperialism as it might claim (if so why is Russia not fighting capitalism within itself?). It’s waging this war to extend the sphere of influence of its own bourgeoisie, hence it’s imperialist despite the side effects
Every war waged between capitalist states (with the exception of national liberatory struggle) is an imperialist war. Funnily enough applying Stalin’s ideas in Foundations of Leninism to the current situation makes the Ukrainian population opposing both western and eastern imperialists the anti-imperialist forces in this war, even if they are influenced by bourgeois ideology (this of course excludes pro-nato (and nato funded…) elements)
I swear it’s like you have read absolutely none of the myriad of sources that have been provided for you. None of the serious analysis about this war or its causes supports this infantile view of the war, not even the imperialists’ own internal strategic analysis. Everyone (except the blinded western masses who still consume the western liberal mainstream media’s ridiculous propaganda narratives) understands that this is about Russia’s vital security concerns being trampled and its very existence as a state threatened by NATO expansion. Russia’s people understand this, Russia’s enemies understand this, and Russia’s global south allies understand this. That is why Russia is waging this war.
First of all that is overly reductive.
Second of all, for the people of the Donbass this is a war of national liberation. I would seriously suggest that you start listening to what the people actually there on the ground say rather than judging from afar conditions which you do not understand. The people in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics had been begging Russia to intervene for the whole period of the 2014-2022 war that the fascist Kiev regime, which was installed after the Western orchestrated Maidan coup, was waging against them. They were the ones who had to live under bombs, bullets and shells, and when Russia finally launched its long overdue intervention in 2022 those people celebrated.
Start by watching a few of the videos on this channel by a native of Mariupol: https://youtu.be/SuZxW7-JKCk
You can also watch interviews on the street with people from that region. There are thousands on Russian media, but if you don’t trust them search for independent journalists on YouTube such as Patrick Lancaster, look for some of his older videos where he interviews locals. Search for other independent journalists who have covered the conflict and have spoken to locals. Or you can watch one of the documentaries that others have recommended on the Ukraine war megapost.
There are plenty of resources available for you to educate yourself. If you continue to refuse to do so there is no point in continuing this conversation.
There are Ukrainians on both sides of this war. It is not “the Ukrainian population” which is choosing to wage this unwinnable war against Russia on behalf of NATO just so that the imperialist West can weaken one of its main rivals, it is a neo-Nazi terrorist regime which is brutally oppressing the Ukrainian population, imprisoning and torturing and murdering dissidents, and forcefully abducting Ukrainians off the streets to send them to the trenches as cannon fodder. You clearly have no idea what you are talking about. This regime is not merely “influenced by bourgeois ideology”, they are outright Nazi worshippers who celebrate WWII Holocaust perpetrator Nazi collaborator war criminals as their “national heroes”. That is who Russia is fighting, not the people of Ukraine.
If you think that Stalin’s writing supports siding with literal fascists who are fighting an imperialist proxy war to ethnically cleanse Russian speakers off of their own land, you are out of your mind.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
No you didn’t quit lying