Vol. 78/No. 10 March 17, 2014
The secret-police regime of Vladimir Putin invaded from weakness, fearing the loss of crucial sources of investment and profit and losing control over other former Soviet republics.
The overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych is a victory for the workers, farmers and oppressed people in Ukraine. It strikes a big blow to Great Russian domination, which has existed for centuries. The exception was the Bolshevik government under the leadership of V.I. Lenin, which championed the right to self-determination of nations oppressed under the czarist empire as part of a program that started with the interests of the working class worldwide.
The fight against Russian domination opens political space for the toilers to discuss and debate politics, to continue to fight against exploitation and national oppression and to find a road to overthrow capitalist rule and replace it with a workers and farmers government.
Putin cynically claims he is protecting the people of Crimea. But his actions in regard to the rights of the Tatar people are akin to those of Joseph Stalin, who expelled the Tatars en masse from their Crimean homeland in 1944 — an exodus that nearly half of them did not survive.
Washington and the European Union hope developments in Ukraine will open the door to further imperialist penetration. But, like the government in Moscow, they fear the mobilizations that toppled the regime in Kiev. They seek “order” and demobilization of the Maidan. In the name of “democracy” they have nothing to offer outside economic “reforms” that would further devastate workers’ standard of living. Working people should also demand U.S. hands off Ukraine.
The fate of Ukraine, including Crimea, is for the Ukrainian people — in their overwhelming majority workers and farmers — to decide.
Related articles:
Russian troops occupy Crimea in Ukraine
Putin targets popular overturn of Yanukovych
‘Russia out of Ukraine,’ demand protest actions
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