Imperialism is an order of destruction and war. For every bourgeois government that tries to get an upper hand for itself in this rotten order and to expand its sphere of influence, it also means that it aims at the oppression of other peoples. The crutches of expansionist policies are nationalism, racism, and chauvinism. This is the meaning of Putin’s statements made yesterday on the recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. 

The words of Putin, who slandered Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Soviet Union, in which the most egalitarian and peaceful nations policy has ever existed, with unfounded judgments, are unacceptable. His arguments lack historical basis and are completely demagogic. We cannot ignore the system of exploitation and warmongering/nationalist delusions that condemn the working people in Russia to poverty, just because Putin wishes to express his twenty-first century monarchic "fantasies". 

We will not allow the competition of distorting historical facts to pass, in which Russian Federation, which embarked on "great power" shows by building on the economic, political, military and cultural heritage of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, is not behind the USA and its allies. We will not allow the history of the 20th century, written by all the oppressed of the world, the proletarians, the 1917 October Revolution, the revolutions in China, Vietnam, Cuba and other countries, the wars of independence, the great victory of the Soviet peoples against fascism, to be distorted by the US and European imperialists, NATO gangs, neo-fascists in Ukraine and Poland, but also not by Russian nationalism. 

This statement of Putin has also been an indisputable proof of how he abused the prestige of the Soviet Union, especially the victory of the Second World War, in a hypocritical way for his own demonstration of strength. These demonstrations, which lack any credibility and sincerity, are a reflection of his tsarist aspirations, moreover, they are an exploitation of the legacy of the USSR. Putin can only be right about the following: Today's Russia, which has imperial ambitions, has nothing to do with the Soviet Union, which has been the advocate of peace, equality and progress for seventy years on behalf of the working peoples of the world. 

The main reason for the suffering of the working people of Russia, Ukraine and other ex-Soviet countries today is the absence of socialism. The protests launched by oil and energy workers in Kazakhstan just a few weeks ago to express their demands which spread throughout the country, as well as the unresolved border problems revealed by the war in Karabakh last year are mere indicators of this. The peoples of the former Soviet Union republics are trying to live under the threat of unemployment, poverty, reaction, discrimination and war. As a result of the villain attempts of those who built today's capitalist Russia over the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a large part of the world has turned into a region always prone to provocations. 

Of course, the USA's provocations for years in order to restore its declining hegemony, to revive the Western alliance aiming to impose its own interests have played a decisive role in these developments. The desires of the USA and NATO, which have been people’s enemies for more than seventy years and have been the leading actors in the disintegration of countries, the destruction of precious assets of people and cities, to encircle Russia have paved the way for today's conflicts. Those who fabricated hostile nations and puppet states from the ruins of former Yugoslavia can have no right to say a word about the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and diplomacy rights of Eastern European peoples, let alone being their protectors. 

Moreover, this process has made the internal contradictions of the Western alliance more visible, and it has clearly revealed that there is no principle or trust between these actors. The absence of a socialist axis and the dissolution of the Soviet Union have an absolute role in “lack of principles” becoming the norm in international relations. 

The contradictions or bargains between the imperialists and the acts they call as the “balance of power politics” can in no way serve for the benefit of peoples. This is also true for the position of the Erdogan government, which is trying to make use of the situation, raising nationalism at home, and looking for a new economic and political route abroad, and the bourgeois opposition of Turkey that expects democracy from NATO. 

The prospect of an extremely dangerous and devastating war for all peoples in the region is extremely high and concerning. All communists and peace lovers have a burning duty to prevent this possibility from realization. 

Communists do not speak the language of nationalism, racism and militarism, but the language of the demands of the working people for equality, freedom and fraternity!

22.02.2022