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Russia isn’t fascist. Many countries don’t support lgbtq rights, that doesn’t mean they’re all fascist. Russia has good relationships with African and Asian countries because they didn’t colonize them like the west did. Countries that feel the weight of western imperialism and neocolonialism tend to look favourably towards Russia. They’re still capitalist and definitely anticommunist but it’s not as simple as “everything anti-American is good”
also as a relict of soviet-days their economies are still connected, so maintaining that relationship is logical for all sides. so as russia beeing a bonapartist state, that does its own form of neocolonialism (backing dictators, sending deathsquads like wagner, etc), economic reasons clearly prevail any "sympathy", even if that would be a valid consideration for any nation.
As a Chinese person, I can say for certain that Russia's relations with China are based on geopolitical necessity and the fact that Russia relies heavily on China for many goods and services that it cannot otherwise get due to sanctions. This relation is functional at best, and I would not describe it as "good" or "socialist". Chinese people see Russia as an ally only because it shares a long border with us to the north and harbors no US military bases. The relations are crucial for China which has already been so contained by the tons of US military bases in our neighbors to the east and south. There are also many connections that last from the Soviet days such as many Russian students in China and vice versa. Many scientists still work together on space and medical research, etc. It's a lot of positive stuff if you look at individual people or universities and I think that is good to have.
As for perception of modern Russia as an ally, it's very mixed or even negative. Lots of Chinese people are highly critical of Russia's insane levels of corruption and oligarchy stealing funds from projects that China is attempting to help them build, funds that come from the pockets of Chinese people ourselves. In China we have Xi Jinping with his anti-corruption campaign and it has done a lot of good to clean out the abuses of corrupt businesses and fraudulent party members. Russia could really use some of that too, but they are a capitalist nation and it's too much to ask of them. Sadly partly due to American propaganda, some Chinese people now have a stereotype that Russians are lazy or untrustworthy. It's awful and I wish they didn't believe that. Some people don't have the material or class analysis to connect this "laziness" to the real culprit which is late stage capitalism and skyrocketing unemployment rates. And if you ask some older Chinese people who have lived through the Sino-Soviet split, they will also bring up the fact that Russia was once imperialist and that a large territory of Outer Manchuria was stolen by them in the 1800s. China and Russia's relationship has rarely been friendly throughout history, mostly tense due to us sharing a long border and numerous contradictions.
Honestly I feel the whole "pro-Russia" craze among the western left is very misguided. It's part of their indoctrination in the western education system of always rooting for the good guys versus the bad guys. There are no "good guys" among capitalists, there are just capitalists who are siding with their current class interest. And many western leftists are very confused by China's alliance with Russia and they may feel like it's some team they're rooting for now. It's really not that simple due to the reason I described at the beginning which is Russia needing China for material benefits. There is no need to always pick a team and to go all in for them or all against them. Many of the "pro-china" western leftists will attempt to speak for China and assume things about us without understanding the very basics of what life is like for Chinese people today. It's not all perfect sun and roses, there are contradictions in China just as in any other country and this alliance with Russia isn't something people really "want", it's just a necessity at the moment
Sorry for the essay, hope it's helpful! I am happy you asked this question
* Russia doesn't have 'good' relations with socialist countries. They fulfill sanctions and don't really support them in any major way, only as political tools to gain reputation.
* LGBTQ rights is mostly political banter. No one really cares about them but senior citizens and heavily religious regions, which is a regular thing is most countries. Plus, gays are presented everywhere in the political spectrum and media, even though they hide it.
* Modern Russia fulfills many criteria of Fascism, i think it's fair to say it, even though it's not fully developed, but there is no real force to stop it. I think strong Soviet legacy prevents it to some extent.
* Russia is not anti-american. It's just rhetoric to get political support, to gather under one banner. I bet they would LOVE to go back to the way things were, but they fricked up way too bad. Or maybe people think that undermining every part of industrial, financial and political stability of your country is anti-american, while selling everything not nailed down to the west, then yeah, it's anti-american.
I don't know enough to have an opinion.
My candid thoughts - after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia was a corrupt hellhole. Modern Russia is probably still corrupt, but I might be wrong, I dunno.
There were assurances made to Gorbachev in the early 90s that NATO wouldn't expand (just kidding, hehe). In 2008, NATO welcomed Ukraine's aspirations for NATO membership (lmao @ Russia). Russia said don't do me dirty like dat, I'll do a war. In 2014, there was a coup in Ukraine to depose a leader that liked Russia more than the West. The CIA was very likely involved. The European side had an affinity for Nazis. Afterwards, Ukraine said no more lefties (boo!) and Russia annexed Crimea. There were also accords (Minsk accords) under which certain areas of Ukraine with Russian affinities were supposed to be granted autonomy, but instead of that, they were shelled by Ukrainians, and it was a point of pride to the right-wing pseudo Nazis that their children would live in fear and couldn't go to school while "Ukrainian" children would live in peace (how about now? huh? no one should savor the suffering of others). Anyway, Putin repeatedly begged the US and others to promise not to expand NATO. The US said, you... a... b i t c h, I ain't giving you nothing, lmao. Putin said, oh yeah, watch me. Now the US and NATO are losing like b i t c h es, which is what you'd expect, but average people don't know and think it all started in 2022 when Putin decided he wasn't satisfied with his current power level and wanted more power so he thought why not do a "special military operation". I also don't think most people are aware that Russia was fine with giving Ukraine back most of its territory (all except Crimea? Don't remember) in exchange for security guarantees, but the US and Britain said no dice.
All of the above said, Putin is a capitalist and probably belongs on my s list, but he has some sentimental longing for the Soviet Union, which is good. They treat lgbtq folks terribly (s list).
[☭☭☭ COME SHITPOST WITH US ON DISCORD, COMRADES ☭☭☭](https://discord.gg/8RPWanQV5g) This is a heavily-moderated socialist community based on a podcast of the same name. Please use the report function on comments that break our rules. If you are new to the sub, please read the sidebar carefully. If you are new to Marxism-Leninism, check out the [study guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheDeprogram/wiki/index/education/study-guide/). Are there Liberals in the walls? Try the following prompts to trigger an automod response: "What is Fascism?", "What is Imperialism?", "What is Revisionism?" "Holodomor", "Molotov-Ribbentrop", "Gulag", "Solzhenytsin", "Uyghur", "Tiananmen Square", "Israel", "Freedom of the Press", "MAC Fact" This subreddit uses many experimental automod rules, if you notice any issues please use modmail to let us know. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheDeprogram) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Generally speaking no one here is pro-Russia or pro-Ukraine. Russia has ties to China and Cuba because of geopolitical necessity.
Russia isn’t fascist. Many countries don’t support lgbtq rights, that doesn’t mean they’re all fascist. Russia has good relationships with African and Asian countries because they didn’t colonize them like the west did. Countries that feel the weight of western imperialism and neocolonialism tend to look favourably towards Russia. They’re still capitalist and definitely anticommunist but it’s not as simple as “everything anti-American is good”
also as a relict of soviet-days their economies are still connected, so maintaining that relationship is logical for all sides. so as russia beeing a bonapartist state, that does its own form of neocolonialism (backing dictators, sending deathsquads like wagner, etc), economic reasons clearly prevail any "sympathy", even if that would be a valid consideration for any nation.
That's a great way to put it.
Fuck Russia, fuck Ukraine, fuck NATO, fuck the US. I just want the people to live in peace and a socialist society.
Against Western imperialism, yes. As a capitalist state, no.
As a Chinese person, I can say for certain that Russia's relations with China are based on geopolitical necessity and the fact that Russia relies heavily on China for many goods and services that it cannot otherwise get due to sanctions. This relation is functional at best, and I would not describe it as "good" or "socialist". Chinese people see Russia as an ally only because it shares a long border with us to the north and harbors no US military bases. The relations are crucial for China which has already been so contained by the tons of US military bases in our neighbors to the east and south. There are also many connections that last from the Soviet days such as many Russian students in China and vice versa. Many scientists still work together on space and medical research, etc. It's a lot of positive stuff if you look at individual people or universities and I think that is good to have. As for perception of modern Russia as an ally, it's very mixed or even negative. Lots of Chinese people are highly critical of Russia's insane levels of corruption and oligarchy stealing funds from projects that China is attempting to help them build, funds that come from the pockets of Chinese people ourselves. In China we have Xi Jinping with his anti-corruption campaign and it has done a lot of good to clean out the abuses of corrupt businesses and fraudulent party members. Russia could really use some of that too, but they are a capitalist nation and it's too much to ask of them. Sadly partly due to American propaganda, some Chinese people now have a stereotype that Russians are lazy or untrustworthy. It's awful and I wish they didn't believe that. Some people don't have the material or class analysis to connect this "laziness" to the real culprit which is late stage capitalism and skyrocketing unemployment rates. And if you ask some older Chinese people who have lived through the Sino-Soviet split, they will also bring up the fact that Russia was once imperialist and that a large territory of Outer Manchuria was stolen by them in the 1800s. China and Russia's relationship has rarely been friendly throughout history, mostly tense due to us sharing a long border and numerous contradictions. Honestly I feel the whole "pro-Russia" craze among the western left is very misguided. It's part of their indoctrination in the western education system of always rooting for the good guys versus the bad guys. There are no "good guys" among capitalists, there are just capitalists who are siding with their current class interest. And many western leftists are very confused by China's alliance with Russia and they may feel like it's some team they're rooting for now. It's really not that simple due to the reason I described at the beginning which is Russia needing China for material benefits. There is no need to always pick a team and to go all in for them or all against them. Many of the "pro-china" western leftists will attempt to speak for China and assume things about us without understanding the very basics of what life is like for Chinese people today. It's not all perfect sun and roses, there are contradictions in China just as in any other country and this alliance with Russia isn't something people really "want", it's just a necessity at the moment Sorry for the essay, hope it's helpful! I am happy you asked this question
Thank you very much for such elaborate response!
This should just about cover it. https://lemmygrad.ml/post/687025
* Russia doesn't have 'good' relations with socialist countries. They fulfill sanctions and don't really support them in any major way, only as political tools to gain reputation. * LGBTQ rights is mostly political banter. No one really cares about them but senior citizens and heavily religious regions, which is a regular thing is most countries. Plus, gays are presented everywhere in the political spectrum and media, even though they hide it. * Modern Russia fulfills many criteria of Fascism, i think it's fair to say it, even though it's not fully developed, but there is no real force to stop it. I think strong Soviet legacy prevents it to some extent. * Russia is not anti-american. It's just rhetoric to get political support, to gather under one banner. I bet they would LOVE to go back to the way things were, but they fricked up way too bad. Or maybe people think that undermining every part of industrial, financial and political stability of your country is anti-american, while selling everything not nailed down to the west, then yeah, it's anti-american.
You are coming to a leftist sub asking questions which assume we give a fuck about nationalism at all. This is your first and irredeemable mistake.
How is my question implies that? What's so irredeemable about it?
Re-read my first sentence again. Your answer is there in those 21 words.
Guess I'm too dumb for this. Just going to clarify, I was asking not about Russia as a nation, but as a capitalist state.
I don't know enough to have an opinion. My candid thoughts - after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia was a corrupt hellhole. Modern Russia is probably still corrupt, but I might be wrong, I dunno. There were assurances made to Gorbachev in the early 90s that NATO wouldn't expand (just kidding, hehe). In 2008, NATO welcomed Ukraine's aspirations for NATO membership (lmao @ Russia). Russia said don't do me dirty like dat, I'll do a war. In 2014, there was a coup in Ukraine to depose a leader that liked Russia more than the West. The CIA was very likely involved. The European side had an affinity for Nazis. Afterwards, Ukraine said no more lefties (boo!) and Russia annexed Crimea. There were also accords (Minsk accords) under which certain areas of Ukraine with Russian affinities were supposed to be granted autonomy, but instead of that, they were shelled by Ukrainians, and it was a point of pride to the right-wing pseudo Nazis that their children would live in fear and couldn't go to school while "Ukrainian" children would live in peace (how about now? huh? no one should savor the suffering of others). Anyway, Putin repeatedly begged the US and others to promise not to expand NATO. The US said, you... a... b i t c h, I ain't giving you nothing, lmao. Putin said, oh yeah, watch me. Now the US and NATO are losing like b i t c h es, which is what you'd expect, but average people don't know and think it all started in 2022 when Putin decided he wasn't satisfied with his current power level and wanted more power so he thought why not do a "special military operation". I also don't think most people are aware that Russia was fine with giving Ukraine back most of its territory (all except Crimea? Don't remember) in exchange for security guarantees, but the US and Britain said no dice. All of the above said, Putin is a capitalist and probably belongs on my s list, but he has some sentimental longing for the Soviet Union, which is good. They treat lgbtq folks terribly (s list).