Source > Российское социалистическое движение

Russian socialists have been actively participating in protests against Putin’s war as well as debates with the Western left, urging them to take a firmer stand against aggression and dictatorship.

Ahead of the 24th of February, the RSM prepared a statement polemicizing with supporters of compromise with the Kremlin “for the sake of peace.” “We say: War on War!” discusses the nature of the current war and Putin’s “anti-imperialism,” and it has been translated into several languages and published by many left-wing media outlets in the EU, the UK, and the US.

RSM activists participated in many protest actions dedicated to the anniversary of the war both in Russia and abroad.

In Almaty, the Kazakh authorities did not allow an anti-war rally, but the RSM and the Kazakh Left (Kazleft) called on opponents of the invasion to lay flowers and light candles at the monument to Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko and the stele to the heroic city of Kyiv at the 28 Panfilov Guardsmen Park. Dozens of Almaty residents and Russian emigres took part in the action, and Russian and Kazakh socialists donated sleeping bags to the Parcel Foundation for Ukrainian refugees.

In Vienna, more than a hundred Russians came out to protest the war. The rally was organized by the initiative Russians Against War and was led by an RSM comrade. In his speech, he emphasized the need to stay in touch with opponents, doubters, and even supporters of the war. He stressed that anti-war views should be based on a sense of responsibility and empathy, not self-righteousness or a desire to stand out.

In Hamburg, a Saturday rally of Russians organized by the initiative Anti-War Hamburg gathered about a hundred participants. Notably, it drew not only recent immigrants from Russia but also “Russian Germans” (often accused of conservatism) who have been living in Germany for decades and German leftists from the International Socialist Organization.

One of the rally’s organizers, an RSM activist, stated that Russian protests hold crucial political significance because they undermine the idea that “Russia is Putin” and no progressive political changes are possible there, a view shared by many Western politicians and business people alike. As the West grows tired of the war, such “realists” will increasingly tend to compromise with the Kremlin and betray Ukraine. The participants of the action chanted “We are not slaves!,” “Russia is not Putin!,” and “Stop Putin’s War!”

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