The imperialists in the Kremlin

According to a recently published Eurobarometer survey, 97% of the Swedish people support the EU's support for Ukraine against the Putin regime's imperialist war.

This post is a translation of a letter to the editor in the Swedish newspaper Sydöstran. The original letter in Swedish is published here.

Imagem: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP - 2.abr.2022

The executions, mass murders, gang rapes and mass deportations committed by the Russian troops in Butja, Borodianka, Irpin, Izium, Lyman and Mariupol and other places have aroused such disgust in us that there is no other issue on which the Swedish people are so united .

However, there are those who instead show solidarity for the killers. Among the three percent who support the Putin regime's genocidal war are mainly right-wing and left-wing extremists. Common to these is the worship of strong leaders with imperialist ambitions, contempt for democracy and human rights, and denial of facts combined with participation in the Kremlin's disinformation war.

The support from the right-wing extremists is most clearly felt in media such as Nya Dagbladet. In Nya Dagbladet, it was claimed in an editorial that the Kremlin is not shelling civilians in Ukraine. The editorial was later reproduced on a blog run by a known left-wing extremist. Nya Dagbladet's pro-Kremlin positions are mixed with conspiracy theories about Ukraine and vaccines in a blissful mix of Fria Tider's editorial writers. The Nazis in the Swedish Resistance Movement took an early stand for the Putin regime and condemned the revolution on the Maidan as a Jewish coup d'état. The coup theory was shared by left-wing extremists and spread on various blogs and Facebook groups posing as peace activists.

The left-wing extremists who support the imperialists in the Kremlin often call themselves peace activists. The clearest stance for the Putin regime's full-scale war was made by the former chairman of Sweden's Peace Council and a member of the Facebook group Folk och Fred. These peace activists ironically call themselves anti-imperialists.

The extremists are increasingly demanding that we stop helping Ukraine defend itself and instead persuade the country to negotiate peace on the Kremlin's terms. But a peace on the Kremlin's terms will only be temporary and allow the Kremlin to stockpile troops and weapons for a future continued war. Budapest, Kharkiv, Helsinki, Istanbul, Kyiv, Minsk and Paris are not only names of cities but also names of agreements and agreements that the Kremlin has violated.

As Hans Bülow writes in an editorial in this newspaper, the dictator in the Kremlin has not given up his ambitions to wipe out Ukraine and restore the former Russian empire. A temporary peace would also mean a humanitarian disaster for the population of the occupied territories. Preventing this requires that we continue to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people and help them with arms to fight back the imperialists.