Anti-fascists rally in Moscow!

Zyuganov opens conference

 by Theo Russell

The Third International Anti-Fascist Forum, held in Moscow from 24th  to 26th May was a remarkable event, bringing together 180 delegations from almost 100 countries, and members of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) from across that vast country. One delegate was Egon Krenz, the last leader of the German Democratic Republic, who addressed the forum and was presented with the Lenin Prize while he was there.
Dozens of members of the CPRF from Moscow and elsewhere worked hard to ensure the smooth running of the conference. By organising this event the CPRF did a great service to the international communist and workers movement.
Opening the forum CPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov said that the West “has achieved great success in combining various methods of domination”, allowing it to become the leading global power. “To maintain its hegemony, it has made extensive use of mass consciousness manipulation. With the development of new technologies, this system has become truly global”.
Zyuganov reaffirmed that “ownership of the means of production is the key to economic and political dominance. And it doesn't matter whether we're talking about material or information production”. He said artificial intelligence was “another resource in the hands of those who own capital”, saying “capitalists will use it to enrich themselves and strengthen their dominance”.
“Without recognising itself as a class”, he said, “the proletariat will be a plaything in the hands of capital. It will be forced to accept alien ideas and values. 
“As Antonio Gramsci, one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party, wrote, the working people must acquire a new world view. The duty of communists is to help the proletariat acquire class consciousness and develop a new concept of life”.
In an interview with the national TV channel Russia 1 during the conference, Yuri Afonin, the deputy chairman of the CPRF, described the killing of 21 students in a Ukrainian mass drone attack at a college in Starobelsk, Lugansk, most of them girls aged 14-18, as a war crime.
He said that although Italian and Japanese journalists had visited the site “nothing was shown on their TV channels”. The BBC dutifully recycled the Banderite Kiev puppet regime’s lies, claiming the target was a college training elite Russian drone pilots. However later BBC reports acknowledged that the college may have been for training future teachers.
Afonin also made the extremely important point that the Russian leadership is not opposed to Ukraine joining the European Union, a fact which has definitely not been reported by the British capitalist mass media.
He said “President Putin had repeatedly stated this”, adding that “Russia is simply categorically opposed to Ukraine joining NATO, and becoming a military base against Russia". But he also warned that “the EU itself could become a military alliance, they're already talking about their own army”.
Afonin also reminded Russia-1’s viewers that the Western plan to destroy Belarus as an independent state, depriving Russia of an ally, “is clearly still on the agenda”. But he reaffirmed that “Belarus is not just an ally of Russia, but part of our Union State, and Russia will defend its territory as if it were its own”.
An unforgettable concert, Art against hatred, was held as part of the Forum with performances by children and teenage arts students, dances from different regions of Russia and artists and dancers from other countries like Dominica and Chile. The delegates also watched the documentary Imperialism and Terror made by the CPRF’s  Red Line TV Channel, which has also been circulated to comrades here in Britain.
At the end of the Forum Gennady Zyuganov thanked the international delegates for their “very friendly, effective and interesting collaboration” saying “we saw many familiar faces among the participants, and we are very pleased that all our friends share a common vision for the fight against Nazism and fascism, for peace and justice”.
Closing the conference Zyuganov recalled the two “systemic crises” of the last century, the two world wars “which culminated in the Great October Socialist Revolution and the great Victory of 1945”. He said that “the nuclear missile parity established by the Soviet Union saved the world from a major nuclear war”.
Zyuganov outlined the CPRF’s Victory Programme “for the Russian Federation's recovery from the crisis”, which includes nationalisation of mineral resources, a return to a normal eight-hour working day, high quality care for women, children and the elderly, and the restoration of the universal right to free education and medical care “even if a private, parallel system exists”.
In addition the Party called for “specific proposals for developing the latest technologies and harnessing the full potential of modern science, to ensure that society is educated, literate and able to live in peace and dignity.”
The appeal issued at the end of the forum For justice and global development and without fascism, terrorism and wars! recalled that “in the harsh winter days of 1941, the Soviet people proved to the world that fascism is not omnipotent”.
It said “imperialist reaction is once again seeking to unleash its broadest possible attack on the rights of working people. Its constant companions remain militarism and colonialism, fascism and anti-communism.
“Before our very eyes, capitalism has essentially cast aside the veneer of liberal demagogy. It speaks less and less about freedom and human rights. Reaction increasingly turns to dictatorship, terror, chauvinism, and war.
The appeal warns that “various forms of fascism are being revived. The heirs of Hitler and Mussolini, Franco and Salazar, Horthy and Antonescu, are raising their heads. Aggressive military blocs are increasing their activity. 
“The imperialists are increasingly trying to pressure entire peoples, cynically using political terror, religious extremism, ethnic hatred, the noose of sanctions, and the cudgel of war.
“We declare: the fight against fascism is inseparable from the fight against anti-communism and Russophobia. 
“We resolutely condemn attempts to equate the Soviet Union with Hitler's Reich, to declare its liberators ‘occupiers’, to tear down monuments to Red Army soldiers, to ban communist symbols and to justify Nazi collaborators. 
“All these steps are nothing less than political preparation for a fascist revanche. These reactionaries seek to deprive the peoples of their memories of history, to cut the bonds between generations, and to slander the heroism of the USSR and the entire resistance movement against fascism.
“The fight against terrorism occupies a special place in our common struggle. We resolutely condemn terror in all its manifestations - whether carried out by individuals, groups, with state backing, voluntary or mercenary, military, economic, or psychological. 
“Terrorism brings death and destruction, cripples lives, breeds fear and hatred, and sows pain and suffering.
Terrorism cannot be explained solely by the fanaticism of rabid groups or the criminal intent of individuals. The breeding ground for terrorism is a world of social inequality, lawlessness and poverty, humiliation and unemployment, interventions and genocide, dictatorship and neo-colonial practices, arbitrary sanctions and cynical blockades.
“Imperialism has destroyed entire countries and created zones of chaos, all the while pretending to be ‘liberating’ them. And this  same imperialism organises and arms mercenaries and orchestrates coups d'état.
“We emphasise: not only is capitalism incapable of eradicating terrorism, it constantly reproduces its social, economic, and political preconditions. The fight against terrorism cannot simply be reduced to police operations or military campaigns. 
“Life demands the elimination of its causes: the exploitation of man by man, neo-colonial plunder, and social inequality. The dissolution of imperialist blocs and the end of the dominance of transnational capital are the imperative of our times.
The appeal confirmed that the participants in the Third International Anti-Fascist Forum “express their support for Russia's anti-fascist and anti-terrorist activities within the framework of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine. 
“We view this struggle as part of the overall resistance to Western global diktat, state terror, militarism, and neo-Nazism. We strongly condemn attempts to use Ukrainian territory as a springboard for the expansion of imperialist influence.
“We emphasise: our fight against neo-Nazism and terrorism is fundamental. There is no room for compromise. 
“It is directed against forces seeking to revise the results of World War II, rehabilitate Nazi collaborators, and destroy the memory of the heroism of anti-fascists. 
“We will never reconcile ourselves to those who sow terror and fear, seeking to subjugate the world to the dictates of capitalism. We wage our struggle for the right of peoples to security and historical truth, sovereignty and comprehensive development, social justice, and the choice of a socialist path.
“We resolutely demand that the United States cease its attempts to dictate its will to the Republic of Cuba. For decades, Cuba has remained a symbol of dignity and fidelity to its chosen path. 
“We demand that the monstrous sanctions against the Island of Freedom, and Washington's arbitrary charges against the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Raúl Castro Ruz, must end immediately. The embargo against Cuba is an act of state terrorism against an entire people.
“The pathological desire to punish entire countries for their chosen path of development is an example of irresponsible and criminal policy.
“We express solidarity with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. We demand an end to all political and military pressure on the Venezuelan people, and an end to economic sanctions. 
“We insist on the immediate release of President Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores. The repeated US attempts to crush the Venezuelan people and appropriate their natural resources reflect exactly the same neo-colonialist policies that fuel fascism, terrorism, and military intervention.
“We demand an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people. The Israeli military must cease its crimes in the Gaza Strip, and its aggression against the people of Lebanon. We insist on the realisation of the right of the Palestinian people to their own state.
“Washington must end its support for Israel's aggressive actions, and immediately end its military operations against Iran. We call on the international community to condemn the United States’ interventionist ambitions, and demand compensation for the damage and suffering it has inflicted on the people of Iran.
“We call upon all people of goodwill to join the united front of progressive, leftist, communist, patriotic, anti-colonialist, and anti-fascist forces. We must join forces in our just struggle. 
“Acting as a united front, we must expose anti-communism, anti-Sovietism, and Russophobia, defend workers' rights and fight for a just world which can bring peace and security for all.
“We appeal to all the peoples of the world: do not be deceived! Do not trust those who spout false slogans about freedom, but who actually practice enslavement. Those who talk about democracy but cultivate the dictatorship of capitalism. Those who preach security but foment war. Those who promise to fight terrorism but instead sow discord and violence.
“Only a world of equal peoples, social justice and the brotherhood of workers will protect humanity from fascism, terrorism and war.
No to imperialism, neo-Nazism, anti-communism and terrorism! We won't let them blow up the world! No pasarán! They won't pass! Let the world of labour, socialism and friendship of peoples triumph!
Long live international workers' solidarity!”.
Among the many prominent representatives of the international communist movement from every continent, the contributions by two speakers, Petro Symonenko and Boris Litvinov – leaders of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Donetsk branch of the CPRF respectively – are of particular interest to our readers.
In his speech Symonenko said  “As events in Ukraine, and other states targeted by ‘colour revolutions’, show – which were in reality coups – we saw organised penetration into public, government political, economic and security structures, the creation of extensive networks of centres and bases for training militants, and a network of companies, banks and funds, all of which were used to hide the true goals of the project.
“To provide propaganda cover for these aggressive policies and the horrific crimes which led to an untold loss of human lives since 2014” Symonenko said “the imperialists adopted the slogans of a national liberation struggle with an ethnic and pseudo-democratic basis”.
Boris Litvinov recalled that “a vital part of the anti-fascist struggle in WW2 began in Donbas, the land of anti-fascist workers”, and said that today “our army includes representatives from around the world, even from Israel, Poland and Cuba”.
He also called for the creation of a new communist and workers international organisation. “We invite them to come to Donbas –  this is the home of the anti-fascist struggle! If we can break Ukrainian fascism, we will break one of the main points of international imperialism!”
Addressing the forum, the delegate from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela said that Russia was “playing a decisive role in guaranteeing peace in Europe and Latin America. The people of Venezuela are still fighting for the release of Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores, and working to strengthen people’s power. Our people want to create socialism. We are fighting against imperialism, just as Bolivar and Chavez fought against imperialism, and ours is a revolution  which will survive any attempt to crush it”.
The delegate from the Communist Party of China reaffirmed that “our foreign policy is based on global dialogue, mutual wellbeing and the observation of international law. We are working to develop Russian-Chinese cooperation and partnership, and we emphasise that the current world order must continue to be based on the outcome of World War Two”.

The video Imperialism and Terror, with English subtitles, is available to watch on the YouTube channel IUAFS2026.

War and peace - a Ukrainian tragedy

by Alan Stewart

Hubris: The Origins of Russia's War Against Ukraine by Jonathan Haslam, Bloomsbury 

2025. 368 pp RRP: paperback £10.99; hardback £27.99; eBook £8.79.

 

The war in Ukraine started in February 2022 and has been raging for nearly four years.

It is the biggest conflict fought in Europe since World War Two by far. It has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives – both civilians and combatants.

Jonathan Haslam is a widely respected history professor. In his latest, highly acclaimed book he attempts to explain what led to the Russian intervention.

He notes that on 9 February 1990 – at the end of the Cold War –  the US Secretary of State, the emollient James Baker, assured Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO's jurisdiction or forces would "not move one inch eastwards”. Yet in 1999 Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic all joined NATO.  It was the first wave of post-Cold War enlargement. NATO itself called it a "historic moment”. And then in 2004 the "big bang" enlargement brought in seven more countries. This included the Baltic states – the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. All this further deepened Russia's sense that it was gradually being isolated and encircled.

Then in 2008 NATO made known plans to accelerate entry for two other ex-Soviet states, Georgia and Ukraine. Plus there was evidence of US involvement in Ukraine's "Maidan Uprising" which began in November 2013 and which saw the toppling of the pro-Russian president Victor Yanukovych. Allegations persist that it was a CIA engineered coup.

In any case the Kremlin retaliated by annexing the breakaway autonomous Crimean republic that had left Ukraine to join the Russian Federation  and by, as the author says "fomenting a war in the Donbas region of Ukraine".

Which brings us up to the current day. The Russo-Ukrainian war is not exclusively, or even mainly, about Putin's territorial ambitions. Haslam shows that it is much more complicated than this and that the origins lie on the other side of the Atlantic. It is an interesting perspective and a fascinating read.

Escalation leads both ways

 In a final act of madness Joe Biden has sanctioned the use of NATO-supplied weapons of mass destruction against the Russians in Ukraine. Shamefully, the Starmer government has followed suit on a blatantly obvious attempt to stymie any efforts by the incoming Trump team to end the conflict. It didn’t take long for Biden’s Ukrainian puppets to do their master’s bidding launching American long-range rockets and British-made Storm Shadow missiles on targets deep inside Russian territory.
These decisions by the US and British governments were made without any debate or decision by the US Congress or the Westminster Parliament. The Stop the War Coalition is calling on Starmer and Biden to stop these provocations immediately and to focus on securing a negotiated end to the war while Jeremy Corbyn wants Starmer to explain to the public whether we are now “at war” with Russia,
Corbyn, who now leads the Independent Alliance in parliament, says Starmer “must tell the British public if this means we are now at war with a nuclear power, what risk this poses to people in Britain, and why this action was taken without any approval from parliament. As we edge closer and closer to catastrophe, we should be doing everything in our power to bring about de-escalation and peace. Instead, our political leaders have added fuel to the fire and gambled with people’s lives for political gain”.
What happens next nobody knows. Biden’s provocation clearly crosses a Russian red line. The Kremlin has, so far, not responded in kind. But Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, warns that use of such Western-made systems in the conflict has drastically changed its nature. “A regional Ukraine conflict instigated by the West has acquired elements of a global one,” he said. Russia’s air defence systems have successfully repelled all the attacks made with these Western long-range missile systems. “The goals that have apparently been set by the enemy have not been achieved,” he said.
Russia reserves the right to strike the military facilities of countries that allow their weapons to be used against Russian territory Putin said. “We will determine the targets during further tests of our newest missile systems based on the threats to the security of the Russian Federation. We believe that we have the right to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities”.
Russia has always favoured a peaceful resolution and the Russian Federation is ready to resolve all contentious issues. “But we are also ready for any development. Do not doubt it, there will always be a response”.
Donald Trump has long said that he’s going to swiftly end the Ukraine war which he rightly sees as a drain on American resources while serving no purpose for the American people. But he put out mixed messages on Ukraine during his campaign for the presidency, rhetorically posing as the peace candidate yet having a friendly meeting with Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky at Trump Tower in September. We’ll soon see one way or the other which way Trump turns – or indeed what other tricks Biden has up his sleeve to wrong-foot the incoming Trump administration.
Escalation works both ways. These long-range British and American missile systems cannot be used without the direct involvement of Western military specialists and there clearly will be long-term repercussions unless there is a speedy return to the negotiating table.

The other Russian revolutionaries

by Ben Soton

Felix Volkhovskii – A Revolutionary Life by Michael Hughes; Open Book Publishers, 356pp, rrp £22.95

When it comes to the Russian Revolution this paper tends to give wholehearted backing to Lenin and his group, the Majority faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), more commonly known as the Bolsheviks. This is not to say there were no other grouping and individuals working to bring about the end of Absolutism in Czarist Russia.  One such individual was Felix Volkhovskii, the subject of Michael Hughes’ book.      
Volkhovskii was born in 1846, in what is now Ukraine; his parents were from a minor aristocratic family and he led a privileged life.  He became involved in opposition politics whilst studying in St Petersburg and was eventually exiled to Siberia.  In 1890 he left Russia first to the United States then to Britain where, despite a brief return to his homeland around the time of the 1905 revolution, he spent the rest of his life.  Whilst in exile he was heavily involved with the Society for Friends of Russia Freedom and edited its publication Free Russia.  He died in 1914, three years before the overthrow of the Czar.        
The book gives a detailed study of the various organisations in opposition to the Czarist autocracy. These included Liberals who favoured reform but opposed any significant social change and the various revolutionary groups who supported social and political change through revolution. Meanwhile the book also explains the shift in emphasis away from the rural peasantry to the urban working class as the main revolutionary force. The strategy was ultimately taken up by the Lenin and the Bolsheviks who carried out the world’s first socialist revolution.
Volkhovskii, who later joined the Social Revolutionary Party, often referred to as SRs, favoured a broad front which include both Revolutionaries and Liberals.  History later proved this to be a pipe dream; with Russian Liberals being more fearful of the working class than the Czar. Indeed many Russian capitalists who upheld the liberal ideology had close connections with the Czarist state and the imperial court.  It took the crisis brought about by the First World War to bring an end to both the Czar and Russian capitalism, at least for a few decades.  
The book is in many ways an odyssey through the complex myriads of Russian opposition politics from the 1870s to the outbreak of the First World War.  As well as what could be described as the Russian solidarity movement in Britain.  However it gives little mention to either faction of the RSDLP and leaders such as Lenin and Stalin, or for that matter Trotsky.  Instead it features less well-known figures from the Social Revolutionary Party. The book may be an attempt on the part of certain sections of academia, motivated by either anti-communism or Russophobia to create a narrative that the Russian Revolution was essentially high-jacked by authoritarians; whilst true revolutionaries, such as Volkhovskii have been overlooked.  We know better!                          

Greetings to peace activists of the Netherlands

 

We are publishing the contents of this video message from one of our closest friends, Leonin Ilderkhin, because it gives a brief but excellent description of the situation in Ukraine, and of the demands of all Ukrainian anti-fascist democrats and patriots.

Dear friends, my name is Leonin Ilderkhin, I'm from the Coordination Council of the Union of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners of Ukraine.
We greet with all of our hearts your event in the Netherlands, and the other places where you make your great activities.
I want to speak briefly about the core issue of the present day conflict around and inside of Ukraine.
The roots of this conflict lie in the desire of the capitalist centres, that is the USA and England, to revive their economy and their military industrial complex. Now, by using the present day conflict, they have achieved their goals, partially. They have revived their military industrial complex, and they have raised the prices in the world for weapons.
They have oppressed Western Europe and generally the European Union by greatly increasing the price of natural gas, oil and other necessities. In this they are destroying their competitors in Western Europe, and in this way they want to oppress the Russian Federation.
They don't care about what is happening in Ukraine or what is happening to the population of Ukraine, to the people there. They don't care, they consider the Ukrainian land as a territory where they test their weapons, where they test their military capabilities, in this way they hope to overcome the general crisis of capitalism that started in 2007-8. They are trying to escape from their own internal crisis.
In this situation we want to put forward these slogans: No weapons to the conflict zones, whether it is Ukraine, Palestine or Yemen; No weapons, no military personnel and no mercenaries to these conflict zones - from Western Europe, from the USA, from England or from France.
In this situation we want to oppose all actions which promote the continuation of conflict. The USA and England plan to occupy all the countries of Eastern Europe including the Baltic countries, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, etc. We don't want this, we want peace in Europe, we want peace in the world. In this situation we want to give our great support from our hearts to you, dear friends.

Stop arming Ukrainian fascists!

In London...

by Theo Russell

Activists protested last week in London, Glasgow and Dublin, calling on Britain and NATO to stop sending weapons to the illegitimate Banderite junta in Kiev. They demanded “No More British Challengers, Storm Shadows and Depleted Uranium for Ukraine!”, “No More British Weapons for Ukrainian Nazis”, and “Zelensky - Your mandate expired on 29th  March 2024 - Step aside and stop blocking peace talks!” 
The protests on 15th August coincided with the Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Kursk province, where the British government has given permission to the Kiev junta to use British weapons on Russian territory, including Challenger 2 tanks which use depleted uranium shells. 
These shells don’t pose an immediate radiation threat, but the particles from their use go into the soil and water table, remaining radioactive for 4.5 billion years. They have led to a surge in cancer cases affecting people of all ages in Serbia and Iraq, and no-one knows how the DU can be removed from the environment.
But the biggest controversy concerns permission for Kiev to use its Storm Shadow missiles for long range strikes into Russia. Less than a week after Labour took power, Keir Starmer suggested that Britain would give Zelensky the green light, but the next day Downing Street changed its mind.

...Glasgow

The problem for the fanatical war lobby at the Daily Telegraph and at the top of the British military is that the Storm Shadow is a joint project and its use requires the permission of France, but also from the Americans as they are the dominant force in NATO’s military support for Ukraine.
The UK has repeatedly pressed Washington for permission for long range strikes, but last week a Pentagon spokesman told a briefing that the USA is concerned about the potential for escalation.
The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that such strikes would lead to NATO bases anywhere in the world becoming targets of the Russians and states and armed groups allied to Russia. 
Such NATO strikes would be incredibly reckless and another step towards a possible all out NATO-Russia conflict – and yet Britain continues to push for them!
Former UK ambassador to Moscow Tony Brenton said on BBC Radio last year that "Britain is the most aggressive of all the NATO members in Ukraine” and has “more special forces in Ukraine than any other NATO country”. 
A senior aide to President Putin, Nikolay Patrushev, says that NATO countries – primarily the USA and the UK – had masterminded the Ukrainian foray in Kursk province, which he said was “planned with the participation of NATO and Western special services".
In that operation a video has emerged of Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk wearing Second World War German helmets sporting the emblem of the Waffen SS and taunting a Russian prisoner.
The International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) campaign to expose the countless crimes of the Banderite Nazis in Ukraine – NATO’s proxies whose ancestors created their own fascist ideology in the 1930s – is operating in a very difficult and hostile environment in Britain. 
The murders, torture and imprisonment of tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been totally hidden by the British media, which since the NATO coup in 2014 has reported only from one side of the war which started that year.

and Dublin...

But we know from ten years of protests on the streets, and our experience of working class communities, that very many people in Britain don’t believe the daily lies of the Banderite-London-Washington propaganda network, but they do know that Nazis are running wild in Ukraine. 
At every protest we have held the number of people showing support for our demands has been 20 to 30 higher than those who have attacked us.
At our London protest many people showed their support, some (including one who looked like a senior military officer) were very unhappy. The only person to launch an aggressive verbal attack was a Ukrainian Banderite, who is presumably on an extended holiday in Britain. He was met with an equally strong response and didn’t stick around for long.
Despite the difficulties we face we will continue our solidarity with all those resisting the return of Nazism to Ukraine, defending the rights of all of Ukraine’s national communities, and the millions living in exile.
Since 2014 we have warned that what is happening in Ukraine is “a warning to Europe and the world”. After recent events in Britain, it is now clear to everyone that the fascist threat is growing rapidly in the rich and powerful capitalist states on both sides of the Atlantic.

A dangerous escalation

The Ukrainian raid into southern Russia last week was clearly monitored and probably even directed by the NATO military advisors embedded in the Ukrainian army. The main target was the Kursk nuclear power station that the Ukrainians hoped to seize and then swap for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine that was liberated in 2022. Their secondary objective was to seize Russian land to swap for recent Russian gains in the Kharkov region of northern Ukraine.
Russian resistance has foiled the Ukrainians on both counts. Though the Ukrainians are still entrenched on Russian soil their advance on Kursk has been beaten back while any hopes for peace talks and a negotiated settlement to end the war have now been dashed as the Kremlin vows to fight to drive all the Ukrainians out of their lands and carry on fighting until Kiev accepts Russia’s terms to end the conflict. 
Though no one knows exactly why the lame-duck Biden administration sanctioned this Ukrainian sortie it is clearly linked to the American presidential election. The war lobby, the cross-party clique that represents the most venal and aggressive circles within the American ruling class, are always ready to cuff the Russians while Democrat bagmen may believe that a slap in the face to the Russians will boost Kamala Harris’ chances in November.
Whatever the motive it’s a dangerous gang. This sort of escalation brings NATO one step closer to a direct clash with the Russian army – a clash that could easily turn into a nuclear exchange in the heart of Europe.
The aim of the NATO alliance all along has been to force war on the Russian Federation, and now the whole world can see the terrible price which has been paid for a war which could so easily have been avoided. 
In the past the Russian Federation did everything possible to avoid a full-scale war in Ukraine. The Kremlin spent eight years supporting the Minsk process plan, involving simple autonomy for the then Donetsk and Lugansk Republics, while Ukraine, with NATO’s support, broke ceasefire after ceasefire and thousands of civilians in those republics died in constant Ukrainian attacks. When the Russians intervened to support the anti-fascist resistance and stop the persecution of the Russian-speaking minorities in the Donbas in 2022 they withdrew all their forces around the Ukrainian capital to negotiate a peace deal with the fascist regime only to be double-crossed at the last moment by the NATO powers who told the Zelensky regime to keep on fighting.
Sir Keir Starmer likes to pose as the equal of the Americans in the NATO alliance but in reality Britain is no better than the rest of the Western European pack that have been forced to accept the model of subservience imposed on Japan by US imperialism after its defeat in 1945.
Dependent on American protection to defend their own global interests they destroyed the Yugoslav federation and the Libyan Jamahuriya at Washington’s behest. They fan the flames of war in Ukraine and the Middle East and prolong the unhappy partition of many countries including Cyprus, Ireland, Kashmir and Korea. Fearful of the second coming of Donald Trump and uncertain of the loyalty of the Harris team all they can now do is watch as the drama of the race to the White House plays out.

Britain joins the war in Ukraine

by K Hill

While the US has brought about regime change in Ukraine with the Maidan coup in 2014, installing a thinly disguised neo-Nazi government of Banderites and corrupt politicians to loot its resources, sell its land and saddle it with massive debts thanks to dodgy IMF loans, the UK has been heavily involved in the training of their military – now the second largest European army (after Turkey) in NATO.
The UK involvement has involved everything from bringing Ukrainian commanders for "special training" in the UK, Nazi tattoos on show much to the embarrassment of the British media, to the existence of special advisors, in reality SAS and SBS units, to supervise "on the ground" the attacks on Snake Island and Kerch Bridge.
This is the real reason our British press has been so obsessed with these two "targets" over the past two years, despite their lack of strategic importance, because they are great PR and distract the British public from the grim reality of millions of dead and wounded Ukrainians over the past years.
This is a war Ukraine can't win, never could win, but a war that the UK along with the US said would be worth it because if the Ukrainians "weakened Russia" they would be rewarded with European Union and NATO membership – despite the fact that they didn't qualify, and never would. Now the EU and NATO are so weak, they may well become members simply because both are on their last legs, completely ruined by this unwinnable war along with the rest of Europe and the UK.
When offered more than reasonable terms of peace by Russia, the US sent Boris Johnson to persuade Zelensky to continue the war, while the US funded billions of dollars of "loans" Ukraine can never repay to stay in the war, knowing they would be defeated, but determined they should keep on fighting until Biden is re-elected.
The tragedy is that Ukraine could never win "the war" and the Americans knew that. Russia has more and better weapons than NATO, can produce more and better weapons than NATO can in the future, even if Europe and the UK move to a "war economy". Russia now has a bigger, better trained armed forces than NATO, although it didn't before the Americans provoked this war in 2014. In fact Russia was reducing its armed forces in order to focus more on rebuilding its economy after US sanctions and building up international relationships with other victims of American imperialism.
Sanctions have now bankrupted the West, and BRICS will make US hegemony irrelevant, but the UK's real humiliation has come with Sunak's admission that the UK won't "directly fight Russia", because it exposes the fact that we already have been secretly fighting Russia for a decade, in an unwinnable war that has exposed our complete inability to do anything but start what we cannot finish.

All smoke and mirrors

Quite why the Foreign Office has chosen to leak details of secret talks with the Russians at this time remains a mystery to the bourgeois media that unquestioningly published the story earlier in the week.
These sort of clandestine talks were, of course, the norm during the Cold War.  Hot lines and secret diplomatic exchanges via go-betweens in neutral countries remained open during the height of the imperialist confrontation with the Soviet Union. Vital links for spy deals, prisoner swaps and back-door channels to avoid misunderstandings that could rapidly escalate into a nuclear war that neither side could win. But if we are to believe the Foreign Office the only matters raised with the Russians at a number of covert meetings around the world were on routine issues of grain supplies and nuclear safety. These are issues that could usually be dealt with at ambassador level. They certainly would not normally justify covert liaisons in all sorts of places like New York and Vienna.
The Foreign Office is at pains to stress that at no point has the UK sought to enter peace talks around finding a diplomatic end to the conflict. If so what was the point of all these cloak-and-dagger meetings?
We can only guess at what was on the agenda but one thing’s for sure, and that is that the British envoys were acting as errand boys for the Americans. Though the Americans have been quite open about their own talks with the Russians they like to use trusted allies, like Britain and Japan, to raise issues without compromising their own position  in advance of any future direct negotiations.
Though Boris Johnson liked to pose as the man who persuaded  the Ukrainians to go for total war and break off peace negotiations with the Russians last year everybody knows that Johnson was only doing the bidding of Joe Biden and the American war-lobby which has used the conflict to tighten their grip over all their European allies.
Ukraine is essentially a protectorate of US imperialism. A vassal state that fights with NATO’s guns and lives on imperialist aid only keeps up the fight because the war is still in the American interest. 
No-one, beyond the chosen few in America’s ruling circles, knows what Biden’s war aims are but he’s clearly has got most of what he wanted when the war US imperialism provoked broke out in February 2022. NATO has taken over the once neutral states of Scandinavia. Russian gas and oil exports to Europe have been cut and US imperialism is now supreme in the UK and the European Union. It has come at a price that has largely been paid in blood by the hapless Ukrainians. But it has also cost the American tax-payers plenty in billions of dollars-worth of military supplies that can never be repaid. Now that bill is coming under scrutiny in the run-up to the next US presidential election.
Donald Trump is on the come-back trail claiming he could stop the Ukraine war in a day by talking directly to Putin. On the other hand the Democrats, still unsure on whether Biden is capable of fighting the next election, want to concentrate on their domestic reform platform which they believe will secure them a second term in office. They need a cease-fire to stop this becoming a campaign issue. But only time will tell whether the Biden administration is now ready to seriously talk about ending the war.

 

Fighting fascism in Europe!

With Tatiana Desyatova and Boris Litvinov of the CPRF  

by Theo Russell

We support the victory not of Russia, but of the world against resurgent fascism in Europe

I represented the NCP and the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign, met comrades and friends at a key-note conference in Moscow on the Ukraine crisis last month.
1 joined campaigners from Holland, France, Austria, Italy, Brazil, the Basque Country and India, who overcame the difficulties in travelling to Russia imposed by the imperialist sanctions regime, to meet in the Russian capital for the 6th annual conference of the Red Square-Molotov Club.
The Moscow conference, which ran from the 23rd to 25th May, included members of Russian parties and Russian experts, Ukrainian political emigrants, and representatives from the Donbas, as well as members of the international peace, communist, socialist and social democratic movements.
The conference was organised by the MART Corp Radio & TV agency, and the main topics were the conflict in Ukraine, political repression in Ukraine and in the NATO countries, and the issue of prisoners of war in Ukraine. But the issue which took up most debate was that of peace talks.
The conference provided an invaluable political and economic analysis of the entire global backdrop to the conflict in Ukraine and agreed on the most urgent priorities for international ant-fascist activists.
Leonid Ilderkhin, the conference organiser and member of the Molotov Club and the Union of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners of Ukraine (UPEPPU), kicked off proceedings by saying that: “While many are calling for peace talks, this won't happen. The Istanbul 1 and Istanbul 2 talks were both wrecked by Boris Johnson.”
“However,” he continued, “it is still necessary for peace and solidarity organisations to call for an armistice and peace talks to expose the true nature the true nature of the imperialists, and to raise the real dangers of the Ukraine war moving to a more dangerous level, something the more aggressive and hawkish members of NATO would like to see.”
Larissa Shessler, Chair of the UPEPPU, shared this viewpoint, saying: “We do not support the call for the Donbas Republics and Russia to enter into ceasefire talks.” She went on to describe the almost barbaric crimes on an horrific scale committed by the Kiev regime's fascist henchmen in Ukraine since February 2022.
“You cannot imagine the level of fascism in Ukraine, this has never been seen before in Europe since 1945. After the Special Military Operation (SMO) began there has been total repression of any opposition whatsoever in Ukraine.
“All organisations, movements and parties not supporting the regime have been suppressed,” she said. “Organisers of the Immortal Regiment marches [which honour the fallen in the Second World War] in every town in Ukraine have been eliminated, they have disappeared and had no contact with their families. But the European Court of Human Rights will not accept any cases concerning anyone on the left in Ukraine.
“Even very minor people who were active in the past have been ‘removed’, such as a woman who organised the Immortal Regiment march several years ago in Zaporizhia. Thousands of political prisoners have been tortured, had no medical treatment or proper food. Over 100 in the city of Nikolaev alone.
“When Ukrainian forces retook Kherson, hundreds, thousands of people experienced repression. In Kupyansk, anyone believed to have co-operated with Russian forces was massacred. In Snihurivka, even an old woman who had received humanitarian aid was arrested and beaten.
“We can't envisage how the nature of the current regime in Ukraine can ever be changed,” Larissa concluded.
Yuri Moskovsky, an official from the Federal Agency for Management of Special Economic Zones, described the war in Ukraine as “a struggle for people's power, supported by the Russian Federation, against fascists and Nazis who are using ‘democratic’ cover”.
Moskovsky said: “The power structures in Ukraine were supported by world finance capital long before 2014. This support is continuing today in the form of troops, arms, information and Intelligence.
“Attempts to engage in negotiations will not succeed,” he said. “We see that in Ukraine there is no democracy and no space for Russian-speaking people. To agree to an armistice would give the regime hope that they will not be defeated and will only lead to a prolonging of the conflict.
“At this moment, the world is moving increasingly towards nuclear conflict. It is only by achieving the goals of the SMO will we be able to truly bring this conflict to an end.
“The prosecution of political criminals and the rulers in Ukraine must be the same justice as that given to German and Japanese fascists in 1945. However,” he warned, “the infection of fascism will always be a threat, and their example inspires those who share their views around the world.”
Leire Azcargorta, a journalist and interpreter from the Basque Country, told the meeting that in the 1986 Spanish referendum on whether to remain in NATO, the Basque and Catalan regions voted to leave NATO. "This means that if these regions had been independent, they would have left NATO."
In March this year, she said, there was a huge demonstration against NATO in the Basque capital Bilbao.
Andrea Luchitti, an Italian journalist living in the Donbas, spoke about the resurgence of fascism in Italy, with the Brothers of Italy, the descendants of the puppet fascist government under German occupation in the Second World War, now the governing party of Giorgia Meloni, and the president of the Italian senate keeping a statue of Mussolini in his house.
He said that most people in Italy are against sending weapons to the Kiev regime, with opinion polls showing 60 per cent of voters against any Italian involvement in Ukraine.
Darya Mitina of the United Communist Party of Russia (OKP) and a former elected representative in Ukraine, said that: “Today, Ukraine is the principal military entity at the service of the NATO states. Negotiations with the existing regime are not possible, peace negotiations can only take place after the destruction of the present Ukrainian regime.”
“We support the victory not of Russia, but of the world against resurgent fascism in Europe,” she said. “Everybody knows that the war will end only when the west stops sending arms to Ukraine. Hence, the main task is to end the supply of weapons.”
Vasily Koltashov from the New Society Institute, an independent Russian social science body, provided an analysis of the global political and economic contradictions and features that led eventually to the conflict in Ukraine: “The military situation in 2022 was against a backdrop of a financial crisis in the USA and failures in its system of credit. 2022 also saw a great inflation in food and energy prices causing severe economic damage to the economies of the USA and Europe, whilst there was a radical improvement in the Russian economy.
“The main basis of economic development in Russia is the sector of industry that precedes raw material extraction. Previously the European countries were using Russian oil to make diesel and other products, now they are importing diesel from India and Turkey made from Russian oil.
“This not only guarantees Russia's economic development in conditions of sanctions, but many developing countries becoming more developed, whilst de facto the so-called developed market economies are becoming less developed.
“The elites of those developed economies see in the war against Russia the solution to their economic problems. These elites truly believe that all global economic and social reforms must be blocked.
“They want to break Russia economically and militarily, so that they can then take under very strict control Asia and its resources, and then increase the pressure on China.
“This is why in conditions of the bank crisis and the possible default of the US government, in Washington there is no reduction in military or foreign expenditure, while financial support for the fascist regime in Kiev will be stepped up by the European countries and the World Bank.
“I cannot say that the highest circles of Russian bureaucracy were ready for such a sharp conflict with the Western powers. Since 2022 the global political and economic conflict has been growing.
“We must understand the roots of this conflict, which is taking place on the former territory of the Soviet Union. Those roots of this crisis are very, very deep, and lie in the needs of the Anglo-Saxon financial elites to obtain the vast natural resources of Central Asia.
“Sometimes they use economic methods, such as the US interest rate hikes, which provoke the decline of the Western economies and depression in world markets. The aim is to depress raw material prices to damage the Russian economy. And these elites don't care that in doing this they ruin their own economies.
“I'm explaining all this because we need to understand that the idea that an immediate peace in Ukraine will bring an end to the threats to Russia from the West is a Utopian one.
“At first, the fascist regime in Kiev must collapse, and together with this there must be the liberation of European nations from the influence of the USA. Only after this can we imagine that the USA, Canada and Britain can consider some progressive social and economic changes.
"So the conflict is a long one, the conflict is very deep. Most important of all is that the theoretical possibility of the defeat of Russia in this conflict will not bring any good to the European or the world economy, because a new cycle of economic growth must have at its core the economies of the BRICS countries [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa].
“These are the new, big economies that can develop the industries preceding the exploitation of raw materials, and this requires the development of social welfare states that bring about social consumption, which is the opposite model to that of the neo-liberal capitalism of the West.
“The Western middle classes cannot increase their consumption because this is only possible through more and more credits, which cannot last forever. That is why the new core of the world economy must be the BRICS countries.
“The most important aspect of fascism is that it involves the [members] of the population who are not educated masses, who are involved in nationalist, ultra-right and fascist groups who have a much better life than everybody else. There are two ways to demolish this, physical elimination through war, or long-term stagnation, as we have seen before in history.”
“The elimination of the Kiev regime will pave the way for a much better social life in all the European countries. Their choice is between the physical military elimination of the Kiev regime, or stagnation, decline and fascist regimes in Europe,” Koltashov concluded.
Sonia Van Den Ende, a journalist from the Netherlands who is on the Mitroverets death list and is unable to return home, compared the war In Syria to that in the Donbas. “The West used ISIS and Daesh nazis as proxies, and we saw 4.9 million people die during the Arab Spring movement. We saw the Azov battalion all over Mariupol, and at the Azovstal steel plant I personally saw copies of {Mein Kampf} and Nazi emblems.
“A new fascist system has been created in the West, and we need to confront this. Everyone wants peace, but we can't see how that is possible with the Kiev regime. We need to see a new Nuremberg process in Ukraine.”
Vladimir Sadkov, Chairman of the all-Russian Officers Union, called for “a united international anti-fascist front to co-ordinate international groups and parties, with the purpose of ending arms supplies, ending the violations of human rights in Ukraine, and building support for the Russian SMO”.
He described the situation at the front as “more or less equal, neither side can achieve a military victory”, adding that since the start of the SMO, 4,136 Donbas civilians have died, including 136 children.
Leonid Ilderkhin spoke on the issue of prisoners of war since the Russian intervention, highlighting the shameless attitude of the Ukrainian government and military commanders to their own troops. “Thus,” he said, “the Kiev regime demonstrates a disdainful attitude towards international laws on prisoners of war, in fact, it ignores them while its Western backers remain silent.”
Leonid pointed out that many of the Ukrainian troops at the front have been arrested, poorly trained and sent to fight. “These soldiers have no motivation to fight and thousands have simply surrendered at the first opportunity – they run to the Russian forces and say ‘please take us from the hell of Ukraine’.
“This explains why Ukrainian forces have deliberately shelled POW prisons to kill them as they are seen as ‘enemies’, since the majority of them deserted.
“In talks on the exchange of POWs, the Ukrainians do not want the return of sick or injured soldiers which would cost them to look after, instead giving priority to returning captured neo-Nazis.
“The POWs’ families are cruelly neglected. They receive no information about their loved ones, the Kiev regime says nothing about them, and many are simply reported as killed in action.”
Leonid also pointed out that: “Many Ukrainian emigrants from all over Ukraine – people who left to escape the fascist regime – have joined the Donbas and Russian armed forces. This is,” he concluded, “an inhuman and bestial regime.”
Denis Zomer, from the United Communist Party of Russia, said that in 2014 “the west decided that Banderism was the way forward in Ukraine”, and that now “the fascists’ idea is to fight to the last Ukrainian”.
“The Russian Federation,” she said, “is not fighting Ukraine, but it is fighting NATO, and NATO wants to test new weapons. The aim of this war is to destroy the Russian nation.
“The only choice for anti-fascists in Ukraine and around the world is to help normal Ukrainian people to clean their country from Nazism.”
Alexey Albu, a survivor of the Odessa Trade Union House massacre in 2014, and a leading member of Borotba the Ukrainian anti-fascist movement, commented that “many left organisations around the world are connected to imperialist structures and so-called NGOs, and they in turn Influence other organisations”.
He said that: “The role of the dollar in international trade makes the USA the main accumulator of finance capital in the world, but there are several other poles. At the centre of one pole is Russia.
“In recent years we have seen coups or coup attempts in Ukraine, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Belarus. All of these have been aimed at encircling and weakening Russia and opening-up the vast resources of the former Soviet Union to Western interests.
“We agree on the need for negotiations, but this is not possible until the West stops sending arms to Zelensky.
“We have the deepest respect for the work of our foreign comrades and their support for the anti-fascist struggle and for a democratic society in Ukraine, and we feel very much and respect this work,” Albu said.
“Those comrades cannot imagine how important their work is for anti-fascists in Ukraine and in exile. We call for this work to continue, and to involve more people and the working class of many countries.”
Elena Veduta, professor at Moscow State University Department of Strategic Planning, said that “we are at the stage of the crisis when the capitalist class seeks a military solution to the crisis”. She quoted Frederick Engels, saying that every successive war resulting from the capitalist cycle was more catastrophic than the last.
“Today we are on the edge of a world war that will draw in China. Henry Kissinger has predicted that in 10 years there will be a war between the USA and China affecting all of mankind.” She described the ruling regime in Ukraine as “savages and animals”.
“The only solution to the crisis is a planned economy with balanced and proper distribution, which produces the products needed by society. Only economic planning can defeat the globalist agenda, and Russia must take the lead in this work.”
Austrian professor Leo Gabriel, a promoter of the World Social Forum and the European Social Forum, spoke about international efforts to mobilise for a ceasefire in Ukraine.
He said there was going to be an International Summit for Peace in Ukraine to draft a Vienna Appeal for Peace, on 10th to 12th June in Vienna, which will include a condemnation of "the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine".
Messages will be received from former Austrian president Heinz Fischer, Noam Chomsky, Colombian Vice-President Francia Márquez, Guatemalan Cardinal Álvaro Leonel Ramazzini, Brazilian president Lula da Silva and former US presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, and speakers including Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Bolivian Vice-President David Choquehuanca. Other participants include Kate Hudson from UK CND and Medea Benjamin from Code Pink, as well as from many other countries.
Leo said: “The intention is to call for an immediate ceasefire. Although we know it won't happen, it is still necessary to expose the true face of NATO and to raise the danger of the conflict spreading.
In its concluding memorandum, the Red Square-Molotov Club adopted the following slogans for immediate international campaign work:
    • “We call for the rapid exchange of prisoners in Ukraine and in other conflict zones!”
    • “We condemn the Western sanctions against Russia and other countries!”
    • “We call on the governments and peoples of the European Union to resist the policy of sanctions initiated by the United States against the Russian Federation! Sanctions bring mutual harm to the EU and Russia!”
    • “We call for an end to the systematic violations by Western countries and Ukraine of the terms of the agreement to provide the world market with grain from Ukraine!”
    • “We demand an end to military assistance from the United States and their allies to the Kyiv regime!”
    • “We support the initiative of Humberto Carvalho (Brazilian Communist Party) to create the World Organisation of Anti-Fascists!”
    • “Stop NATO! Peace to the Nations! Peace to the Peoples!”

Visiting Russia during sanctions and war

by Theo Russell

 
On a recent visit to Russia to attend an activist conference in Moscow I gained a fascinating impression of this great and civilised country during a time of war.
Just getting to Moscow was quite a challenge. I ended up flying to Helsinki, taking a bus to St Petersburg (the trains run by Russian Railways are suspended), and a train to Moscow. 
There was much talk of long delays at the border with some being questioned by Russian border staff, and the fact that Finland had just joined NATO. So there were any number of things which could have gone wrong, and it was a huge relief to actually arrive in Russia.
The other problem was being unable to use any Western cards or payment apps, which entailed relying on people living in Russia buying rail tickets for me. It wasn’t possible to buy Russian roubles in London, or even at Helsinki airport so I had to take US dollars (the easiest to exchange), and rely almost completely on cash.
The overall impression I gained was of an incredibly civilised, very modern and dynamic country. From the time I came into the outskirts of St Petersburg, on the journey to Moscow and in Moscow itself there was new building work everywhere, many impressive looking modern buildings, and the transport, road and rail infrastructure was in perfect condition - a huge contrast with Britain’s degraded infrastructure.
Unlike Europe and the US, despite the sanctions the Russian Federation has extremely low unemployment and inflation, virtually no national debt, and huge reserves of foreign currencies and gold. Russia has more than recouped the assets illegally seized by Britain and the USA.
I was in Moscow for about a week, spending most of my time in the suburbs and travelling right to the city boundaries in the north, south and east. Everywhere I went I saw new, beautifully designed flats, and even the bus stops right at the edge of the city looked very modern and clean. 
I asked many comrades “where are the poor down areas with high crime levels?" but travelling all over the city I didn’t come across a single area which wasn't pleasant, green and extremely safe. I was told that the suburb of Xovrina had been rough and dangerous 25 years ago, but was now regarded as very desirable. These comrades had no reason to paint a rosy picture.
As for the Western backed sanctions - actually supported by 30 of the UN's 193 members (including the USA’s Pacific dominions) - there was virtually no sign. In fact there are more empty shelves and missing items in UK shops, for various reasons, than in Russia. 
Even the medium sized supermarkets on housing estates (these were built in Soviet times) found all over Moscow had all the daily needs of local people and of a very high standard. One very ordinary small suburban supermarket had a freezer with different types of caviar, the most expensive costing £13.
Many Western - and British - companies still operate in Russia including KFC, Marriott hotels, Subway, Auchan and Spar supermarkets, Philips, AstraZeneca, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Carlsberg, JP Morgan, Microsoft, Spotify, Toyota, Nestle, Red Bull, Total, Unilever, Benetton and TGI Friday.
One unintended result of the Western sanctions is that the wealthy oligarchs have returned their assets to Russia, and are now investing their enormous funds in Russia.
Moscow is an incredibly green city. Even on suburban housing estates where ordinary workers live, behind the blocks of flats are large areas of greenery and children's playing areas. I spent one night in a 13th floor 1970s Soviet era flat. While parts of it could do with a makeover, it was a lovely and surprisingly large flat with an enormous main bedroom. The area outside was clean, pleasant and safe.
I don't mean here to paint a perfect picture of the situation in Russia, I'm well aware that Moscow and St Petersburg are not wholly representative of this vast country, and that there are many problems in Russia. But we have to acknowledge that it is an extremely well run country. 
I was told that most Moscow residents prefer to buy their flats. But the boom in construction of new blocks, with a far higher architectural standard than in Britain and similar to that in Germany or the Netherlands, is also a boom for property developers.
One comrade told me that mafia gangs were targeting elderly and vulnerable people to force them out of their flats, and that many migrants, mainly from the former Soviet Central Asian republics, were crowded into flats in large numbers. However that was only one person, and I didn't see any signs of corruption, gangs or criminal types, something I certainly came across in Moscow when I visited at the time of Gorbachev.
I also asked comrades about racism and racist attacks in Moscow and St Petersburg, which were sadly commonplace in the 1990s and early 2000s. All confirmed that both racism and racist attacks in the cities are virtually non existent today, a very positive piece of news. 
According to Scott Ritter, who recently visited several Russian cities, Moscow receives more government money than other cities, but he says cities such as Novosibirsk and Ekaterinburg were also flourishing, and in fact had cash to spare and were looking for new projects to fund.
In Moscow, the transport system is infinitely better, and far cheaper, than London's. A single metro ticket for the whole network costs 60p, less than a quarter of that in London and a tenth of the cash fare, but the service is far more frequent and there are no signal failures, train failures, or "shortages of drivers". I also used buses and trams which were modern and clean. 
Russia is also a surprisingly modern, hi-tech society. Few in the West realise that Russia is one of only three countries with their own internet and social media infrastructure, the others being the US and China. Here in Britain we are almost totally dependent on US platforms for our maps, e-commerce and media.
The Russian postal service has very smart looking parcel collection lockers in metro stations. There are apps to locate and instantly use cars or scooters on the streets. Yandex, the Russian equivalent of Google (with its own global maps) has very smart Chinese cars parked everywhere for instant hire. Most Russians use mobile payment apps rather than cash.
However, every metro station (in Moscow or St Petersburg) is fully staffed, including ticket offices - very useful for confused foreign visitors! All stations also have security staff and bag x-ray machines, a legacy of past terrorist bomb attacks.
One amazing discovery on my trip was the "stolovaya" restaurants, which originated in the 1920s to provide affordable meals for workers and liberate women from domestic drudgery. 
These 'canteens' can be found everywhere, with several on St Petersburg's Nevsky Prospekt and offer a huge range of very healthy and high quality food, incredibly cheap and even affordable for pensioners (I checked). Many are even open 24 hours! There are also several commercial chains modelled on the stolovayas, all equally high standard and cheap, which can be found all over Moscow. 
Although there are many Western style fast food chains, Russian fast food chains sell very healthy traditional dishes. I saw no equivalent of the fried chicken and pizza shops which saturate working class areas in Britain.
In Moscow I visited an enormous shopping centre , complete with a beautiful ice skating rink. I tried the re-branded Russian McDonalds (controversially named "Tasty - and That's It!"). The food was excellent and there were plenty of people queuing there. 
Another discovery was the currency exchange offices on which I was totally dependent. Although they close at 6pm, they are extremely safe, some with security guards at the door, very fast and professional. The rates are fixed, so no need to look around to avoid being conned.  
In general Russia is incredibly cheap. I stayed in a "2 star" hotel in the centre of St Petersburg the size of a small flat, with living room and bedroom areas, 2 TVs, kettle with tea/coffee and en suite bathroom, for £25. 
As the American journalist Scott Ritter points out "if you convert roubles into dollars it wouldn't translate to what many Americans earn, but the rouble buys four times what the dollar does. If you go to a Russian supermarket and buy a basket of shopping, what would cost you thirty dollars in the United States costs six dollars in Russia."
The train journeys to and from St Petersburg-Moscow were a great experience. Having missed my fast train to Moscow, with help from a very patient cashier I managed to rebook for a "slow" train (5h 48m for a 392 mile trip) on the same day, for only £14. It was the smoothest rail journey I've ever experienced. On the way back I took a sleeper train with my own compartment, for £65. The trains run exactly on schedule, and the staff are very smart, efficient and friendly. 
In the stations there were displays on the contribution the railways made in the Second World War in memory of Victory Day on 9th  May, and the front cover of the Russian Railways monthly magazine was the hammer and sickle flag being raised over the Reichstag in 1945.
Many people have asked me about signs that Russia was at war. In the rail and metro stations, and next to main roads, there are many posters and video signs showing the 'Z' symbol or encouraging recruitment to the military. While writing this I heard that in May alone around 13,500 people volunteered to join up.
Apart from that there were few signs, except that Google and Yandex (the Russian equivalent) maps, and navigation apps went down on a couple of evenings in Moscow. As a result I lost my way once, and a comrade who was driving me somewhere eventually gave up and ordered a taxi.
I was also aware of the Ukrainian terrorist attacks in St Petersburg and near Moscow, but there is tight security everywhere, all done politely and professionally. The night I returned to Petersburg eight drones reached Moscow, two of which landed not far from where I had spent a night. Most were brought down, and there was only superficial damage.
I spent one day in St Petersburg, a very pleasant, beautiful and proud city with a rich history, and very much a seaport city. Opposite the Moskovsky Station on Vosstaniya Square is a huge sign lit up at night, "Hero City - Leningrad". I was very lucky to be given a tour of the main sights by two comrades from the St Petersburg Communist Party (CPRF) Komsomol. If anything I found Petersburg even more friendly than Moscow.
Unlike the car park next to Helsinki Vantaa airport where I caught the bus to St Petersburg, the Petersburg bus station was the nicest I have come across in many years of international bus travel. Dating from Soviet times, it had everything a traveller needs including food and drink counters at 6.30am, souvenir shops and large plant displays.
Despite the many problems to overcome, the visit was a fascinating experience. My impression is the Russian Federation is an extremely strong and self-reliant country. It is increasingly clear that throwing every possible sanction at Russia has had very little effect, and the country, whose economic fundamentals are in far better shape than other European states or the USA, is now returning to growth.
Returning to Britain with its depressing, crumbling infrastructure, a country where there are no reasons to be optimistic about the future, I am now missing Russia and its people and would like to return there at the first opportunity. It is a country I would love to live in.

A step in the right direction

Union activists broke through the bourgeois consensus on Ukraine last week when delegates passed a motion that has enraged the union bureaucracy as well as the fake left cheerleaders for imperialism within the University and College Union (UCU).
    At the UCU’s annual conference in Glasgow delegates passed a motion that explicitly said no to sending arms to Ukraine and no to NATO expansion and escalation.
    The union’s chief bureaucrat, General Secretary Jo Grady says that she was “deeply disappointed the motion passed”, claiming it was being used to “attack the union and question our solidarity with the working class and people of Ukraine”, whilst the movers claim this was a major victory for the anti-war movement.
    Arthur Scargill and Bob Crow were the exceptions that proved that rule that senior union full-time officials rarely reflect the demands of the membership they claim to serve. So Ms Grady can bleat on for as long as she likes as far as we’re concerned.
    At the same time it must be said that this motion is a very modest step indeed in the battle against the war lobby within the labour movement. Like the Stop the War movement that has clearly inspired this initiative, the motion brands Putin a “war criminal” and calls on Russia to withdraw from Ukraine. But it says nothing about the fascist terror that followed that drove the people of the Donbas to take up the gun in 2014.
    What it does tell us is that Putin has “unleashed war crimes” and says “we should stand in solidarity with ordinary Ukrainians and demand an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops”. The motion would have been carried unanimously had it stopped there. But it didn’t.
    It goes on to state that: “NATO is not a progressive force: escalation risks widening war in the region only through a peaceful resolution can lives be saved.” It calls on the Government to stop arming Ukraine and calls on the union to support protests called by Stop The War, CND and other anti-war organisations. This is what has enraged the war-lobby.
    The cause of peace is not helped, however, by those in the anti-war movement who blame the Russians for the crisis, ignore the legitimate demands of the people of the Donbas and fail to recognise that this war began in 2014 when the legitimate Ukrainian government was overthrown by fascist gangs supported by Anglo-American and Franco-German imperialism.
The hidden hand is always at work amongst the fake left within the peace and anti-war movement who essentially argue that peace is only attainable on imperialist terms. We saw this time and time again over Serbia, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Palestine, and now we’re seeing it over Ukraine.
   The movers of the UCU motion have opened up the debate and taken a step in the right direction. But they still call for an unconditional Russian withdrawal from Ukraine – which is also the demand of US imperialism and its lackeys.
The communist stand must be for a just peace in Ukraine – for a neutral and de-Nazified Ukraine that recognises the decision of the Donbas and Crimean republics to join the Russian Federation and grants equal rights for all the people of the regions of the Ukraine.

No DU shells to Ukraine!

The Kremlin warned Britain of the grave consequences of supplying Ukraine with depleted uranium (DU) shells. Some said this simply meant escalation. Others, the gurus of the bourgeois media who pose as ‘military experts’, told us that they posed no danger to Ukrainian civilians and that, in any case, this was just another empty threat from the Russians who would soon be on their knees following a Ukrainian spring offensive. What none of them foresaw was that the “grave consequences” that would follow would be the taking out of the DU ammo dumps and the possible release of deadly radiation into the air.
    That’s exactly what happened when a Ukrainian military depot was totally destroyed by a Russian ballistic missile this week. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says reports that radiation levels have risen in the aftermath of the Russian strike are wrong.
    Whether deadly gamma rays really were released when the warehouse went up is a matter of indifference to the hapless citizens of Khmelnitsky. They stampeded to the shops to buy iodine pills and are being told not to drink the tap water. They're seeing patrols going around the streets with radiation dosimeters after the explosion. They were not prepared to give their authorities the benefit of the doubt. Neither should we.
    Sadly Labour’s leaders and most of the trade union bureaucrats think otherwise. They spend their time thinking of new ways to take the UK back into the European Union and drivelling on about the “human rights” they believe can only exist under the rule of the bourgeoisie. These days many of those who pose as socialists have also become cheer-leaders for imperialism and its lackeys in Israel, south Korea and, of course, Ukraine.
    No treaty explicitly banning the use of DU is yet in force, however repeated UN General Assembly resolutions have highlighted serious concerns over the use of DU weapons. Needless to say, the UK, together with the USA, France and Israel, are the only states that have consistently voted against the resolutions.
    Sadly, the influence of the venal social-democrats and the bogus left stretches far beyond the union movement. Its dead-hand stifles debate in academia and within the traditional anti-war and peace movements in Britain.
    CND and the Stop the War campaign are in the doldrums precisely because they refused to take a principled stand when the Russians intervened to defend the people of the Donbas last year. But genuine communists, such as the New Communist Party, along with anti-imperialists and revolutionary socialists, stepped up their solidarity work in support of the Donbas people’s republics and the underground Ukrainian anti-fascist resistance.
    More people are now seeing through the lies of the imperialists and their willing tools in the peace and labour movement. Stop the War, which originally called for an end to the fighting on NATO’s terms, is shifting. CND to its credit has called on the Sunak government to put an immediate end to its use of DU. They say “inflicting it on the people of Ukraine is the last thing they need” – it’s the last thing we need too.