I have been challenged in my critical support of Russia for its invasion of Ukraine by Lenin who during the First World War said it was foolish to support Germany against Russia or vice versa, and that the people should seek revolution regardless.
This is written in The Defeat of One’s Own Government in the Imperialist War
The phrase-bandying Trotsky has completely lost his bearings on a simple issue. It seems to him that to desire Russia’s defeat means desiring the victory of Germany.
In all imperialist countries the proletariat must now desire the defeat of its own government. Bukvoyed and Trotsky preferred to avoid this truth
You don’t need to give Russia critical support. Much less the US. It is enough to recognize that Putin’s reaction is what one should expect from a traditional power to the West’s attempt to tighten the siege, as much as the Tsar’s reaction to Austria-Hungary’s attempt to annex Serbia was to be expected.
The most positive thing about Russia is that it represents yet another breach in US global hegemony (although the main one, of course, is China). To maintain the defiance, the Kremlin occasionally supports progressive anti-US regimes in the global South such as Cuba and Venezuela, but Putin and his favorite allies in Europe and North America are downright reactionary. That there is such a division between capitalist forces is something that Marxists can eventually take advantage of, but that in no way means that what today’s Kremlin deserves any support, critical or otherwise.