No country is without problems, and certainly not modern Russia. Losurdo however very succinctly states (in 2017!) why Russia’s “imperialism” cannot be compared to that of the West:
the history of Russia in general — not just of Soviet Russia, but of Russia in general — is, on the one hand, the history of an imperial and expansionist power, but there is another aspect to this historical reality: Russia has been at risk of becoming a colony for a very long time. We all know about the invasions by Hitler, by Napoleon, by Charles XII, by the Mongols. For example, if we remit ourselves back to the beginning of the 17th century, it was the Polish who exercised power in Moscow. Immediately after World War I — after the defeat of Tsarist Russia — Russia was in danger of being balkanized, of becoming a colony. Here I quote Stalin, who said that the West saw Russia like they saw Central Africa, that they were trying to drag it into war for the sake of Western capitalism and imperialism.
The end of the Cold War, with the West and the United States triumphant, once again put Russia at risk of becoming a colony. Massive privatization was not only a betrayal of the working classes of the Soviet Union and Russia, it was also a betrayal of the Russian nation itself. The West was trying to take over Russia’s massive energy deposits, and the US came very close to acquiring them. Here Yeltsin played the role of “great champion” for the Western colonization effort. Putin is not a communist, that much is clear, but he wants to stop this colonization, and seeks to reassert Russian power over its energy resources.
Therefore, in this context, we can speak of a struggle against a new colonial counter-revolution. We can speak of a struggle between the imperialist and colonialist powers — principally the United States — on the one side, and on the other we have China and the third world. Russia is an integral part of this greater third world, because it was in danger of becoming a colony of the West.
While I see the pertinence of the last two paragraphs you cited and find them quite convincing, I have a hard time following the first one. Almost all nations in Europe threatened each other of conquest, occupation, colonization or balkanization. But there is no common scale with colonization as the west did and do it. I am by no mean knowledgeable in the subject so take this as it is : curiosity more than criticism.
It’s mostly referring to Lebensraum: Nazi cultural views of the inferiority of Slavs, and Germany’s intent to settle slavic regions like the US did with Native Americans (per the writings of Hitler and other leaders). I’m not sure about the connection with earlier political entities, but the Nazis did have a goal of placing Slavs into work camps and filling their land with German settlers. Some generals wanted to go as far as the Yenisei River in Siberia and give the Far East regions to Japan.
No country is without problems, and certainly not modern Russia. Losurdo however very succinctly states (in 2017!) why Russia’s “imperialism” cannot be compared to that of the West:
While I see the pertinence of the last two paragraphs you cited and find them quite convincing, I have a hard time following the first one. Almost all nations in Europe threatened each other of conquest, occupation, colonization or balkanization. But there is no common scale with colonization as the west did and do it. I am by no mean knowledgeable in the subject so take this as it is : curiosity more than criticism.
It’s mostly referring to Lebensraum: Nazi cultural views of the inferiority of Slavs, and Germany’s intent to settle slavic regions like the US did with Native Americans (per the writings of Hitler and other leaders). I’m not sure about the connection with earlier political entities, but the Nazis did have a goal of placing Slavs into work camps and filling their land with German settlers. Some generals wanted to go as far as the Yenisei River in Siberia and give the Far East regions to Japan.