In Episode 129 [11] of the CounterVortex podcast [12], Bill Weinberg discusses the book Ukraine & the Empire of Capital: From Marketisation to Armed Conflict [13] by Yuliya Yurchenko of the Ukrainian left-opposition group Sotsialniy Rukh [14] (Social Movement). In the book, written in 2018, Yurchenko takes a rigorous neither/nor [15] position between Russia and the West, tracing the roots of the current crisis to the rise of regional oligarchs and a "criminal-political nexus" in the post-communist transition a generation ago. The West, in its rush to effect a crash capitalist conversion in the East, was deeply complicit in this. But these regional fiefdoms were later exploited by Vladimir Putin to effect a division of Ukraine as East-West rivalry re-emerged. This January, as Putin amassed forces on Ukraine's borders, Sotsialniy Rukh issued a statement [16] appealing for "anti-war solidarity." In interviews [17] since the invasion was launched the next month, Yurchenko has been unequivocal in supporting the Ukrainian "popular resistance." Similar statements [18] from socialists and anarchists in Ukraine, Belarus and elsewhere in Eastern Europe have called, first and foremost, for the defeat of Putin's neo-imperial project. Listen on SoundCloud [11] or via Patreon [19].
Production by Chris Rywalt [21]
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