Ukraine War Is Inter-Capitalist Conflict: Counterpunch

The 30-plus years since 1989-1990 have changed both the US empire and its challenges.

Photo Insert: Ukrainian soldiers on patrol in a tank are greeted by a citizen.

Russia proved too weak to hold on to most of Eastern Europe. The United States reintegrated much of that region into Western capitalism via EU and NATO memberships, trade agreements, and Western investments, Richard D. Wolff wrote for CounterPunch magazine, a progressive US publication.

Slowly, over the last 20 years, Russia overcame some of its post-1989 weaknesses. The meteoric rise of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) brought new challenges for the US empire, including a Russia-China alliance.

Russia is now a capitalist economic system allied with the PRC (whose economy has a larger private capitalist sector than at any time since the Chinese Revolution of 1949.) These two powerful capitalist economies are the largest globally by geography (Russia) and by population (China) and they present a major problem for the US global empire.

Russia evidently felt finally strong enough and allied with a much larger economic entity so it could hope to challenge and stop further “losses” in Eastern Europe. Thus, it invaded Crimea, Georgia, and now Ukraine.

In stark contrast, the US empire’s ability to suppress challenges to its global dominance shrank.

It lost wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, as well as its intervention in Syria’s civil war. Its global economic footprint decreased in relation to that of the PRC. It proved unable to bring nations like Venezuela and Iran to heel despite trying hard for many years.

In Ukraine, on one side is an effort led by nationalists who would bring another nation further back into the US-led global capitalist empire. On the other side is Russia and its allies determined to challenge the US empire’s growth project in Ukraine and pursue their own competitive agenda for part or all of Ukraine.

China stays with Russia because its leaders see the world and history in much the same way: They both share a common competitor in the US.

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