By LISZT VIEIRA*
Those who considered Putin a left-wing anti-imperialist leader cannot explain the alliance and those who stigmatized Putin as a dangerous communist are open-mouthed without understanding what is happening.
Russia was invaded by the Mongols between 1220 and 1230, by Lithuania between 1368 and 1370, by Poland between 1609 and 1618, by Sweden in 1709, by France in 1812, and by Germany in 1941. Ukraine was a passageway, aiming to control the Black Sea. And it participated in several wars, such as the Russo-Japanese War, lost by the Russians in 1905, which contributed to the weakening of Tsarism.
Of the interventions after World War II, in addition to the countries occupied in Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union, the Russians intervened in Afghanistan in 1979, in the Muslim separatist province of Chechnya in 1995 and again from 2000 to 2009, in Georgia in 2008, in Ukraine in 2014 annexing Crimea. Russia sent troops to Syria at the request of President Assad in 2015 and invaded Ukraine in 2022, claiming to defend itself from the NATO siege.
As you can see, a “modest” curriculum compared to the dozens of wars and invasions of the US in other countries after the end of World War II, with emphasis on the invasion of Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Panama, Afghanistan, in addition to the “proxy wars”, as was the case of the war in Ukraine and the Israeli massacre in Gaza, in addition to military operations and bombings in several countries such as, for example, in Laos, Cambodia, Serbia, Libya, the Gulf War, etc.
Since 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, and 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia has become a capitalist country, and today it has an authoritarian right-wing president. However, many on the left still considered Russia a socialist country due to the conflict with the United States, and Putin as a left-wing leader. On the other hand, on the right, it was common to consider Russia as a “communist danger” and Putin as a communist dictator to be feared.
Trump’s alliance with Putin, previously announced and now practiced by Trump, has shattered this castle of illusions. The US and Russia have become allies. Those who considered Putin a left-wing anti-imperialist leader are now unable to explain this alliance. And on the right, those who stigmatized Putin as a dangerous communist to be combated are left open-mouthed, unable to understand what is happening.
The criminal US president is destroying democracy, not through a classic coup from the outside in, but from within. This is also the case with Netanyahu in Israel, Putin in Russia, Zelensky in Ukraine, etc. This is what Bolsonaro tried in Brazil, without success. Capitalism, in its dominant neoliberal version, does not seem interested in coexisting with democratic regimes.
Realizing the advance of multipolarity in the world and feeling the weakening of the unilateral hegemony of the United States, Trump began to destroy democratic institutions and practically declared war on democracy, already threatened by the advance of the extreme right in several Western countries. Trump is laying the foundations of a new tyranny based on a neo-fascist ideology. He began to attack some important symbols of civilization such as human rights, as well as environmental protection measures against climate change that threaten the survival of humanity, whether through the destruction of biodiversity or global warming caused by the emission of greenhouse gases and deforestation.
Europe has begun to pay the price for its subservience to the interests of the United States and its armed wing, NATO. France, the only nuclear country in the European Union, abandoned General De Gaulle’s anti-American “force de frappe” policy long ago and accepted, like other European countries, the protection of NATO, the true US army in Europe. And, with that, it accepted that its enemy is the declared enemy of the US.
Now, abandoned by the US, Europe, disoriented, is searching for its own path. The words of the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, were symptomatic when, to raise morale, he said: “Europe has woken up. A giant has woken up. 500 million Europeans are asking 300 million Americans to defend them against 140 million Russians.” He added: “The Old Continent is superior to Russia in terms of soldiers, artillery pieces, and combat aircraft” (Le Figaro, 4/3/2025).
As we can see, the enemy is still Russia. But Russia has no interest in invading Europe. It is interested in economic integration, which has been vetoed by the US, which did not comply with the agreement to dissolve NATO after the Russians dissolved the Warsaw Pact. Sooner or later, some economic integration will probably occur because there are common interests. French General Vincent Desportes, former director of the French War College, in a lecture a few years ago at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, better known as Science Po, advocated rapprochement between Europe and Russia, in view of common interests.
But the ruling elite in the main European countries ignored these common interests. Europe took on the enemy defined by the US, namely Russia, an old Cold War enemy. And it was towed behind US interests with its policy of encircling Russia, via NATO. Trump's rise to power turned Europe around, leaving it rudderless and without protection against its traditional “enemy.”
Trump wants to destroy the State and public services, and turn rights into commodities, as has already been happening with the predominance of neoliberalism in Western capitalism, especially in peripheral countries. Canada, China and Mexico have already announced retaliation against the import taxes imposed by Trump, violating trade agreements and ignoring the World Trade Organization. In Brazil, the government has done nothing so far, because the decision-makers are the “sector”, that is, the steel and aluminum companies.
Trump will leave American democracy in tatters. And the traditional right and left will be lost without direction, and it will take some time to recover from the shock produced by the new US-Russia alliance.
*Liszt scallop is a retired professor of sociology at PUC-Rio. He was a deputy (PT-RJ) and coordinator of the Global Forum of the Rio 92 Conference. Author, among other books, of Democracy reactsGaramond). [https://amzn.to/3sQ7Qn3]
the earth is round there is thanks to our readers and supporters.
Help us keep this idea going.
CONTRIBUTE
