March 5, 2014

The threat of a war in Ukraine remains high following Russia's military takeover of the Crimean Peninsula, carried out last weekend in the wake of a new pro-Western government, led by center-right and far-right parties, coming to power in Ukraine following to downfall of ex-President Victor Yanukovych.

Ukraine has become the battleground for a superpower conflict over a territory in Eastern Europe with both economic and geopolitical importance. In the U.S., Barack Obama led the way among politicians of both major parties in denouncing Russia for "violating international law"--without the slightest hesitation at the U.S. record, past and present, of going to war; occupying other countries in part or in whole; and otherwise trampling on national sovereignty and self-determination. In Russia, Vladimir Putin claimed Russian forces were on a "humanitarian mission" in a Ukraine where "terror, extremists and nationalists" reign--likewise setting aside the atrocities he has ordered, inside and outside Russia.

In reality, Russia's intervention, even if it doesn't expand past Crimea, is designed to win back some measure of power over a country that has been dominated by Moscow for most of the past three centuries. Yanukovych came to prominence among the former Communist Party bosses who scrambled to the top when Ukraine became independent--they were able to hold political power by serving the interests of the super-rich oligarchs in both Ukraine and Russia. Yanukovych's corrupt and repressive reign was ended by the massive protest movement that has occupied the Maidan (Independence Square) in Kiev since November.

But the conservative and nationalist parties that claimed to lead the Maidan movement and that have taken control in Kiev are also servants of the oligarchs. The far right has a prominent role in the new government, as it did in the mass mobilization previously--its anti-democratic, nationalist agenda is widely feared, especially in the south and east of the country, with its closer economic ties to Russia and more multiethnic population.

On March 1, as Russian forces were completing their takeover in Crimea, the Russian Socialist Movement issued this statement saying no to war in Ukraine.