The ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine, that began due to the Russian military expeditions in the Sunflower country, has its causes deeply ingrained in the post- Cold War era geopolitics of Europe and the world at large.  Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the world saw the initiation of a uni-polar and hegemonic global power system, with the core of power concentration lying entirely with the United States of America and its Western allies.

On February 21, 2022, the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin unilaterally announced Russia’s official recognition of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic of Eastern Ukraine as free, sovereign and independent States. These regions of Donbass have been under separatist control for a better part of the last 6 years (primarily since Russia’s aggressive annexation of Crimea in March 2014). Following this announcement of recognition, the Russian President on February 24, 2022, ordered a “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine aimed at “De-Weaponisation and De-Nazification” of the ex-Soviet State. Thus the Russian tanks, aircrafts, missiles, heavy artillery and troops started rolling into Ukraine initiating the biggest geo-political crisis since the end of World War II. Since the start of Russia’s military expedition, more than three weeks have elapsed, and humanitarian crises of gigantic proportions have started engulfing Europe (and slowly the entire world). More than 3.5 million Ukrainians (official figures) have fled their native land and taken refuge in Poland, the Baltic States of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, Bulgaria and Romania leaving behind relatives, loved ones, homes, establishments, memories and trails of tears. Everyday thousands are seen stranded on roads leading to Western Ukraine and the borders. Food, fresh drinking water, medicine supplies have dried up. Relentless bombardments of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities and suburbs have not only caused enormous destruction of property but have also shattered a million civilian aspirations and dreams. But, if we look in detail into the causes of the conflict, we would see the reasons are partially ingrained in the expansionist and imperialist geo-political policies of the last three decades.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) came into existence in 1949 at the end of the 2^nd World War and the beginning of the Cold War. This military strategic alliance which initially started with the US and UK (and later some their Western allies), started rapidly expanding into Eastern Europe following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991. It is widely perceived that the erstwhile US Secretary of State James Baker had famously said “Not one inch eastward” assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with the erstwhile Soviet supremo Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, as a part of a plethora of assurances regarding long-term Soviet security and sovereignty given by the West to the Soviet throughout the German unification process of 1990. But the West went back on its promises and a fierce NATO expansion started in the last decade of the millennium.

First, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (all members of the Warsaw Pact) were admitted into NATO on March 12, 1999. The next round of expansionism includes all the Baltic States – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia along with Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Slovenia on March 29, 2004. The next round of expansionism included Croatia and Albania on April 1, 2009 and the process continued with Montenegro on June 5, 2017 and North Macedonia on March 27, 2020.

“Intensified Dialouge” status is conferred upon NATO aspirant nations whose membership applications are being scrutinized and are under serious consideration. Ukraine and Georgia (both former Soviet states and countries with extensive borders with Russia) have been accorded this status. On the March 10, 2018 NATO added Ukraine in the list of NATO aspirant members, along with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia.

Thus, the military influence of NATO which had already reached Russia’s backyard, was now on the verge of expanding into countries with vast borders Russia. This imperialist expansionism of NATO is not only threatening Russia’s long-term security interests but also the geo-political stability and peace in the region. It is known to all that the US starts installing military hardware and outposts in NATO countries in the name of defence strengthening purposes. Due to these developments, what has transpired is that the US and Russia (the world’s largest nuclear powers) are getting poised directly at each other militarily in East Europe. The only solution for defusing and de-escalating these armaments was to have a neutral buffer zone in East Europe between the NATO countries and Russia. But NATO’s imperial policies have nearly done away with all of the original neutral zones barring Ukraine. In recent years, following the Euromaidan Revolution of 2013 (in which a highly unpopular pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown), Ukraine has moved a lot closer to both the European Union (EU) and the NATO. This coupled with the impending threat of Ukraine’s pending NATO membership seems to have rattled Russia’s security concerns significantly.

Figure 1 : Map displaying NATO’s expansionist drive | Courtesy: https://mronline.org/2019/01/02/is-russia-imperialist

President Putin has repeatedly stressed upon the fact that Neo-Nazi elements have penetrated deep into the Ukrainian State structure. This assertion might sound a bit far-fetched, but there are some elements of truth and fact in it also. The Azov Battalion is a far-right wing militia, based in Mariupol (Ukraine) formed to combat Russian separatist forces in the region and Donbass. It is well known and documented that they had committed heinous war crimes like mass looting, illegal detentions and torture (according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Several OHCHR reports state that the Azov Battalion conducted grave Human Rights violations in the Donbass region in 2014-15. Some elements of the Azov Battalion are known to infamously use Nazi symbols and propaganda material. In 2014, the Azov was incorporated into the National Guard of Ukraine, and since then the Azov members have been serving as soldiers in the Ukrainian National guard. Thus, this makes Ukraine a party to Neo-Nazi elements and ideology that whole of Europe had fought against in the 2^nd World War.          

This article is in no way trying to justify Putin’s military adventurism and expeditions in any way, but on the contrary denounces Russia’s aggressive actions which have resulted in a humanitarian crisis. But the reasons behind this war need to be discussed in detail, failing which an amicable and acceptable solution to the problem would remain unachieved. Russia’s actions portray a strong sense of imperialist nationalism. Russia is currently an autocratic, undemocratic, capitalist power (it is no longer the socialist Soviet Union – a fact many of my Leftist friends tend to forget conveniently) where successive elections have been marred with allegations of widespread State-backed rigging in favour of the current dispensation led by Vladimir Putin. Putin’s strong ultra-nationalist image is also portrayed to the internal audience to distract the multitudes from the real issues of high inflation, stagnant growth, unemployment, inequality in the society (since disintegration of the Soviet), Covid mismanagement. Civil liberties, press independence, freedom of speech and political opposition have been under constant attack in Russia. Now coming back to the war, this conflict has actually become a war between two imperial powers – NATO and Russia for one-upmanship where Ukraine and its citizens have become pawns. The NATO is trying to strengthen its grip over Ukraine as an ally country to dump its weapons and Russia is trying to militarily transform it into its Satellite State.

Russian military expedition in Ukraine is basically the first instance of a sovereign country invading another sovereign country in Europe since the 2^nd World War. Cities after cities have been destroyed, besieged, bombed and starved by the Russian army. War crimes like bombing the Mariupol hospital and hostile takeover of nuclear plants are being committed by the Russian Army.

Last week, Russian forces indiscriminately attacked and fired upon Europe’s largest nuclear power plant – the Zaporizhzhia plant, which could had led to a nuclear catastrophe larger in scale than Chernobyl 1986 resulting in radioactive destabilization in whole of Europe. Civilian establishments have been under missile bombardment since the beginning of the war. As stated earlier, more than 3.5 million Ukrainians have become refuges and are currently living in temporary camps in the neighbouring Baltic States, Poland, Romania and other countries, and this number is multiplying everyday as we speak. Shortages of food, medicine and drinking water have plagued the battle-torn nation of Ukraine. Humanitarian and refugee crises of unimaginable proportions (not seen since the 2^nd World War) are being played out in Europe. Students and professionals from across the globe are still stranded in Ukraine amidst these scenes of destruction, waiting to be rescued and evacuated. The humanitarian corridors (set up as a result of consultations between Russia and Ukraine) aimed at evacuation purposes are being fired upon resulting in these evacuation routes becoming dysfunctional.

Figure 2 : An aerial view of civilian establishments destroyed by Russian missiles in the settlement of Borodyanka in the Kyiv region, Ukraine (Image courtesy: REUTERS/Maksim Levin)

The Western media’s role in reporting this war and public opinion formation has also been highly biased and skewed in nature. In the same way, Russia’s dictatorial and autocratic manner of crushing widespread internal protests and dissent against the war has been undemocratic and degrading to say the least.

The West’s efforts at de-escalating tensions before the war and during it have been far from satisfactory (barring French President Emmanuel Macron). The US President Joe Biden and the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been crying war rhetoric for far too long which has contributed more towards escalations rather than defusing the situation. Even during the war, the roles of the US and its allies have been provocative to say the least (like promises of dumping more weapons into Ukraine rather than trying to negotiate things). There has to be comprehensive tripartite talks and negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine and the West. Ukrainian neutrality, a halted NATO expansionism and withdrawn Russian military should be the goal going forward if we want a stable and peaceful geo-political solution to this crisis. Imperialist designs of both the West and counter-military expeditions of Russia need to be rebuked and resisted by the International media.

NATO’s expansionist and imperial designs across the globe need to be resisted, because the world has seen the kind of humanitarian crises that has been created due to it in Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine (just to name a few in an unending list of victim countries). In Palestine, an entire country lives in inhuman conditions under the illegal blockade of Gaza by Israel, without the West even batting an eyelid. This is the kind of Western hypocrisy which also needs to be rebuked and criticized.

The civil society has a very important role in this regard. The Anti-War civil society movements are of utmost importance. Just as anti-war movements in the US during the Vietnam War were a watershed moment in anti-imperial struggles, in the same way anti-war protest images from St. Petersburg (in Russia) have been the highlight in the present resistance against the war. The autocratic and repressive Russian administration has arrested thousands but still sane anti-war voices continue to pour out of the Russian civil society.

The World was slowly limping out of a 2-year pandemic period, when this war has started creating havoc. War in any part of the globe creates crisis of food, shelter, healthcare facilities across the region, which slowly percolates into the entire world leading to higher starvation rates, increased poverty figures, unemployment and displacement. The poor and the working class are hit the most.      

Amongst all the dark clouds hanging over us, there have silver linings and rays of hope emerging in the last few days. Russia-Ukraine negotiations have started in Turkey and are appearing to move in the right direction. The West should look into Russia’s genuine security concerns and on the other hand Russia must immediately halt its military attacks and advances. The solution to this grave crisis can only be sought through comprehensive dialogue between Russia, Ukraine and the West. Ukrainian neutrality along with its future security has to be guaranteed by one and all. Rehabilitation of destroyed Ukrainian establishments, resources have to be pre-empted and taken up as an immediate priority. NATO must stop its eastward expansion and imperialist designs. Russia should also release all prisoners of war (PoW) from Ukraine. Russia should also do more in the areas of Freedom of Speech, civil liberties and release its arrested anti-war protestors and activists. Sane and sensible actions from all sides aimed at de-escalation can save this world from further destruction and catastrophe.

RESIST NATO’S IMPERIALISM AND RUSSIA’S MILITARY CONQUESTS. LET PEACE WIN.

“When a nation becomes obsessed with the guns of war, it loses its social perspective. There is something about a war like this that makes people insensitive. It dulls the conscience. It strengthens the forces of reaction, and it brings into being bitterness and hatred and violence.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

Related:

Russian TV Staff says “no to war”,  quits on-air 

Ukraine invasion: Racist reportage, yet little mention of racism in Ukraine?

Plight of Ukraine’s Muslims amidst the Russian Invasion

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From September 1973 to October 2020, democracy in Chile has traversed the full spectrum ranging from its nadir of the brutal military coup to the zenith of the revolutionary referendum and the “Million Man March” demanding the drafting of a new Chilean Constitution. The first two decades of the 21^st Century has witnessed a new form of participatory non-violent civil society protest movements across the globe.

They are spread across the world, ranging from Egypt’s Tahrir Square to the “Black Lives Matter” movement in the US, from the “Yellow Vests” movement in France to the historic Brexit, from Brazil of 2015-16 to Lebanon of 2019-20, from the streets of Hong Kong to all the major cities of India. Basically, heterogeneous mass protest movements have defined much of the early part of the 21^st century.
 

A collage photo showing the following protest movement photos in a clockwise manner from the top-left corner- Wall street movement in the US (source: Newsweek), Anti-CAA movement in India (source: Hindustan Times), Hong Kong protests (source : Sky News), Arab Spring in Egypt (source : US News) , Brexit marches (source : Reuters) , Chile protests (source : Al Jazeera).

Definition of Modern Democracy and the notion of Participative Democracy

Aristotle in ancient Greece described Democracy as “The government of the poor or those less fortunate”. Let us ride back from ancient Greece to the modern world. In the Universal Declaration on Democracy, the Inter-Parliamentary Council (IPC) of the UN declares in the 1^st Part that “Democracy is thus a basic Right of citizenship to be exercised under conditions of freedom, equality, transparency and responsibility with due respect for plurality of views” and also goes on to proclaim that “Democracy is founded on the primacy of the law and the exercise of Human Rights”. Participative Democracy has its origin in the 2^nd Part of the Declaration, where it is stated that “Democracy is founded on the Right of everyone to take part in the management of public affairs”. Thus, the concept of participative democracy is not as alien a concept as some of the autocratic governments across the world make it look like.
 

A new form of protests and its origin

The 21^st Century began with a flourishing global hegemonic capitalist system with the US sitting at its pinnacle. But the next decade saw several military interventions and expeditions primarily led by the US and its allies (UK and France) in the Middle East and Afghanistan. The US got embroiled in their biggest military conflict since the dark days of Vietnam. This increased military expansionism coincided with an unprecedented global financial crisis which surfaced in 2008. This was the biggest financial crisis the world had seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Capitalism, as we know it, based on the “Trickle Down” Theory of economics was suddenly feeling the heat. Suffering from negative growth and high debt, many large capitalist democracies suddenly found themselves on the verge of economic bankruptcy. Countries declaring bankruptcy, major multinational corporations closing down started a wave of unemployment and financial instability which spread from the developed nations to the developing ones (ironically just like the “Trickle Down” Theory). How did Capitalism respond? Nations started adopting strong fiscal austerity measures, high taxation policies, reductions in government spending like subsidies, health and education sectors. As time passed, the situation only worsened. People reeling under unpaid loans, mortgaged homes, high taxes, reduced subsidies and growing unemployment started hitting the streets in mass protest. This ranged from Europe (France, Greece, Ireland and many more) to Latin America (Brazil, Ecuador, Chile and many more). Thus, economic inequality stemming from globalization and capitalism was the biggest contributor to the rise of street protest movements. But it was not the only reason.

The biggest political reason was a quest for more effective, participative and transparent form of functional Democracy. Democracy as we had mostly seen in the last half of the 20^th Century was mainly equivalent and limited to electoral democracy. Exercising Universal Adult Franchise, the citizens of a nation could directly elect Parliament or the President to enact legislations and govern. But the fallacies of democracy being only limited to the electoral version of it were being felt across continents. On the other hand, a participative democracy is one in which the electorate not only elects its legislature but also participates actively in public opinion forming, policy drafting and governance. Protest movements originating out of political instability, financial crisis, climate crisis, government authoritarianism and rising militarisation has been on the rise for the last two decades. There has been protest movements aimed at enacting popular transparent legislations seeking higher degrees of government accountability or scrapping of draconian laws (like the Lokpal Bill movement or the Anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) movement in India) or sometimes seeking meaningful Government action regarding certain extraordinary situations. For example, the Shahbag movement in Bangladesh was not aimed at toppling the government at all, but its objective was to force the government to take action against the ghastly war criminals of the 1971 Liberation War.

 If the 20^th Century saw armed revolutions aimed at overthrowing establishments and seeking Socialism as its goal, the 21^st Century is witnessing participative, mass civil society street movements aimed at quenching the thirst for more economic, political and societal freedom and higher degrees of citizenry participation in the functioning of democracy.
 

Leadership, composition and protest methodologies

The matters of leadership and protesters’ composition in these mass movements need to be understood in detail. Across countries there has been a sinking of public confidence in established traditional political parties. This has stemmed from political and financial corruption, ineffectiveness and rampant nepotism in the political class. Most of the protest movements have been relatively spontaneous and organised through the online digital social media platforms. An important attribute has been the fact that leaders did not create these movements, but these movements created a new league of civil society leaders. Be it Nigel Paul Farage of Brexit or Imran Sarkar of Shahbag or Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khaled in India, these new-age protest movement leaders have been a product of functional and active civil society activism.

The composition and nature of the protest groups has also been as intriguing and vibrant as the protests itself. The protest movements have been characterised by the diverse and heterogeneous nature of the participating protestors. There has been a mammoth participation of women, teenagers, intellectuals, educationists, students across the spectrum. Subtle ideological differences have not been a barrier in drawing up of the basic charter of demands, designing protest methodologies and setting up of movement’s objectives.

For example, in the Arab Spring revolution of 2011, the Muslim brotherhood stood hand in hand with the Communists and Social Democrats in seeking the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. This has been a common trait of these protest movements. As these movements have not been led by single political parties, there has been participation from the political activist circles as well as the cultural and social activist circles. LGBT rights organisations have thronged the streets as well. There has been a large-scale participation of intellectuals, actors, writers, journalists, free and independent thinkers. As discussed earlier, most of these movements were aimed at the ruling establishment, major financial giants and the globalised capitalist system. Thus, we can easily say that, at the crux of these movements have been the anti-fascism, anti-imperialism, pro-social welfare and pro-leftist ideology. The basic objectives of participative and transparent democracy, more egalitarianism and social welfare have been the common demand across the centre-left to the radical-left of the political spectrum.

These aforementioned movements saw many novel protest methodologies. These movements have been characterised by civil resistance and disobedience, demonstrations, road sit-ins, online activism, singing protest anthems, enacting street plays, impromptu speeches, displaying colourful and powerful hand-drawn posters and mass reciting of the Constitutional rights. These new and unique ways of demonstrations have attracted the young generation and women of all ages to these movements. In today’s times of online activism, this translation of online protests to real and physical resistance has been the hallmark of these civil mass movements.
 

A brief note on some popular mass movements and their objectives

The objectives of these movements have varied from one country to another. But the common point that has remained ingrained in all these protests is the hunger and quest for more answerable, open, transparent and participative form of Democracy. As discussed earlier, there has been widespread anger and resentment against globalization, capitalism and Nations’ big brotherly attitude towards its citizens. Most of the objectives have been political or economics related. A tilt towards the Left of Centre, more social freedom, decrease in the State’s oppressive measures, more civil liberties have been the rallying point for many. Most of the Arabian and North African revolutions from 2011 to 2016 resulted in the ouster of ruling dispensations like that of Gaddafi in Libya or Hosni Mubarak in Egypt.

The majority of the European movements like that of the Yellow Vests movement of France, anti-austerity movements in Italy, Ireland and Greece have led to incumbent governments getting voted out of power. The biggest story in Europe was the Brexit. The British crown rooted for the UK to remain in the European Union but the astounding referendum results where there for everyone to see. Globalisation had angered a much larger section of the society than it had pacified. It had created enormous economic inequality and disparity.

In the US, the Occupy movement created a war-cry of “We are the 99%”, reflecting the deep alienation the majority of Americans (the have-nots) felt in comparison with the top 1% of the society (the haves). This alienation was a direct result of capitalist economic benefits that reached only the top layer and multinational corporations. The public frustration was directed against the Multinational Wall Street corporations who were the reason for the global financial crisis on one hand and on the other hand the US government used public funds to bail them out. The more recent Black Lives Matter movement started as a protest against the brutal police murder of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis, but soon spiralled into a pan-USA movement against racism ingrained across US institutions and society.

South America has witnessed large-scale protest movements against authoritarian regimes in Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and many other countries. Most of these South American countries were tired of financial austerity measures, lowered government subsidies and pensions, high healthcare and education spending, high gas bills and a long list of reasons plaguing their finances and lives. The protests in Chile began as a simple demonstration against a hike in metro ticket prices and soon it translated into the “Million Man March” in the streets of Santiago. The Chilean referendum resulted in an overwhelming 78% of citizens demanding the scrapping of the illegitimate dictatorial Pinochet Constitution of 1980 in favour of a “more egalitarian” new Constitution.

In the South-East Asian region, there have been large and widespread protest movements in India, Pakistan, China and Bangladesh in the last decade. India has witnessed civil society activism and movements of massive proportions in 2019 against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The ruling rightwing government has been forced to put the aforementioned legislation in the backseat and has not framed the CAA rules even after passing the controversial legislation in parliament nearly one year back.

In Pakistan there was massive civil unrest in 2013-14 culminating in the Azadi March against the Nawaz Sharif government. There were claims of systemic election rigging and subverting of democracy by the ruling party. Pakistan saw an overhaul of the erstwhile Nawaz Sharif government.

In Bangladesh there was a separate story altogether. The war criminals who perpetrated unimaginable violence through genocide of Bengalis and indiscriminate rape of women during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War had remained largely unpunished for more than four decades (from 1971 to 2013). Even with a secular and liberal Sheikh Hasina government in power nothing substantial was being done in this regard. The Shahbag movement of 2013 led by students and intellectuals brought the country to a grinding halt. Finally, the government passed a new law to punish Abdul Qader Mollah and the other war criminals swiftly and the Bangladesh Supreme Court complied.

In China, the Hong Kong protests have been there for the whole world to see. China has been systematically undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and infringing civil liberties. The clashes in the streets of Hong Kong between the pro-democracy protestors and the authoritarian Chinese regime has given a sneak peek into what happens to democratic movements in an opaque Chinese system. The world would love to know more about the plight of democratic protests in Tibet (Buddhists led by the 14^th Dalai Lama) and Xinjiang (Uighur Muslims). But rest assured, the way this quest for democracy has advanced in the first two decades of the 21^st century, it will not be long before the streets of Beijing get flooded with pro-democracy protestors. It is not possible to enlist all the mass movements and their objectives in this article, thus a notable few have been elaborated.
 

The way forward towards a more democratic and egalitarian future

In a nutshell, it can be concluded that democracy and the hunger for it has been at the epicentre of all protest mass movements across the globe. The path ahead is laden with several obstacles and limitations which need to be either eased or erased. The United Nations (UN) cannot limit its role to merely framing certain guidelines. The UN needs to effectively counter and reprimand undemocratic practices in various countries to safeguard civil liberties, democratic institutions and human rights. The UN needs to reform and revamp its Security Council and allow a more diverse representation in the Security Council’s permanent members section. The entire continents of South America and Africa have no representation in the Security Council’s permanent member section. For the UN to remain credible, effective and relevant enough in the 21^st century multi-polar and diverse world, it needs to come out of its 75-year-old post-World War II era composition and thought process.

The current global politico-social situation is filled with both threats and opportunities. Right-wing authoritarianism has been on the rise in several countries like Turkey, Brazil, India, Hungary and many others. The threats of fascism, dictatorship and authoritarianism of elected governments have to be fought by the progressive and democratic forces seeking to expand the spectre and effectiveness of democracy. The Left and democratic forces have a very crucial role to play in this resistance against the growing clout of the authoritarian Right. The single basic objective should be to fight for the protection of democratic institutions of nations, to name a few – the Judiciary, Election Commission, Legislature and Executive. In order to protect these institutions from the intrusion of an authoritarian and repressive State, the free and independent media platforms, the civil society and the intellectual intelligentsia must act as the “Checks and Balances” point for the government’s execution of governance. The independent media and the civil society have the hallowed job of creating public opinion in a democracy. Abraham Lincoln once said, “The Country with its institutions belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government they can exercise their Constitutional right of amending it or their Revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it”. As Lincoln had meant more than a century back, when democratic rights of citizens are suppressed and subverted by States, it is the duty and right of the citizenry to rise in revolution. Democracy cannot be and shall not be the Will of the State, but it shall be the Will of the Citizens. Our quest for more transparent and inclusive forms of participative democracy through mass movements shall only grow up and beyond as “we have nothing to lose but our chains”. Let the wise words of Gandhi be our guiding light – “Civil Disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the State becomes lawless or corrupt”.

*Debaditya Raychaudhuri teaches Computer Science at Chandernagore College, West Bengal, India. He is an enthusiast of Indian politics and hails from a Bengali refugee family.

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