I'm glad to see that Barotba got some press in other media for it's analysis. Barotba is, of course, the organization that the League for the Fifth International identified early on as the one who had the most cognizant take on the Ukrainian situation AND the most fundamental Bolshevik style action program for the country. The League also started working WITH Barotba early on to organize resistance to the fascists both in Ukraine and worldwide. League sections are active in the anti-fascist coalitions noted in the article too.
Now, I'm not sure that I agree wholeheartedly with the take that the Russian Federation is NOT imperialist. I still think it is imperialist in attitude, but it's definitely not as developed in it's imperial ambitions as the EU and the USA is. Because it is undeveloped in it's imperialism, Russia has limited itself to smaller steps than the western imperialisms. The Crimean example IS an example of imperialist thinking, even if the people of Crimea welcomed the annexation. Crimea has something that Russia needed (a warm water port) which is why they exploited the Crimean unrest and supported the drive toward annexation. But the lack of real Russian support for the Ukrainian rebels, even the rebels that are actually "pro-Russian" and not just anti-fascist, shows that Russia and Putin doesn't want to take on the problems inherent in Ukraine. They don't, however, want a western imperial presence on their southern border either, especially one that's heavily influenced by fascism. So in the sense that they are protecting their sphere of influence, they are imperialist thinkers.
I also disagree that there needs to be a revival of the USSR, no matter what the nostalgia for that. That regime was Stalinist to the core and should never be repeated. However, the way he described the new USSR he envisioned with it's internationalism and bottom up working class democracy is actually more in keeping with the Trotskyist perspective on revolution and party organization. So I suppose it could be just a question of semantics.
Anyway, thanks again for the post.
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