@davel Russia is definitely imperialist, they have their fingers in a good chunk of the Middle East and have in-roads into Africa. Are they on the same level as the USA? Not remotely. But all they would need is a power vacuum in order to make it happen.
this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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Not every relationship is an imperial-vassal one.
Russia was providing aid to Syria against Israel, until the Western imperialist-backed “moderate rebels” finally seized power, and Assad fled to Moscow. This was the culmination of a project that started as soon as France gave up control in 1946. Russia also recently helped Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso kick the French military out.
Whether Russia will eventually turn imperialist on these states remains to be seen. I don’t think it’s in a position to in the foreseeable future, because that wouldn’t sit well with the imperialist states nor with China.
@davel Imperialism isn't about the creation of vassals, it's an economic division of the world, which Russia certainly does. International oil is a huge thing for them, just as it is for the US. And one imperial side helping the global south against the other imperial side should not be surprising. As it is, African nations are seeing Russia as a better alternative to the USA and China, which is of course by design, and is nothing new.
Imperialism isn’t about the creation of vassals, it’s an economic division of the world, which Russia certainly does.
Imperialism is about economic exploitation, and not every economic relationship is exploitative. Until imperialism & capitalism is eradicated, the world will be divided into blocs, but not every bloc will be an imperialist one, because not every state will be imperialist or imperialized. Some will be non-vassalized capitalist states (known as “non-aligned” during the first Cold War), like Iran, and some will be socialist states, like Vietnam.
The focus on Russia and Iran here is really weird from an ideological standpoint. Neither of those countries is going to support anything remotely resembling democratic socialism, much less communism. Is this just a multilateral geopolitics thing? Like an "enemy of my enemy is my ally" thing? If Russia were to achieve its goals, it wouldn't solve anything. We'd just have a new imperialist, fascist, oligarchy controlling the world order. The only benefit I can see here is that the conflict might be a distraction that allows a third party an opportunity to implement constructive change. Am I missing something here?
The only benefit I can see here is that the conflict might be a distraction that allows a third party an opportunity to implement constructive change.
That’s in the ballpark.
Iran & Russia are capitalist states, but they’re not—at the moment—imperialist ones. Right now they serve as antagonists to the currently-existing imperialist states, and they’re neutral-to-protaganistic toward imperialized states. Imperialism is the foremost obstacle to any vassal state ever developing into socialism.
Honest question from a non-communist, based on your reply here. Does one need to support Putin to be a Marxist?
In a word, no. In a few more words, support for Russia (not Putin, as historical materialists don’t subscribe to great man theory) is only a partial, temporary, tactical one, in the context of imperialist liberation. Russia is still a capitalist state, though, so it’s a two stage strategy: first liberate colonized bourgeois states from colonizer states, and second revolution within those liberated bourgeois states.
Russia is an interesting case: it has already liberated itself from the post-Soviet “shock therapy” neocolonizers. This occurred during Putin’s administration, which is why he is especially hated by the US. So now the support for Russia is in the context of keeping the colonizers from recolonizing it, and supporting Russia to the extent that it helps other states liberate themselves. But Russia isn’t trying to “liberate” Ukraine, at least not all of Ukraine. It’s trying to resolve the genocidal attacks on the people of the Donbas, and it’s trying to resolve the imperialist military expansion at its border.