To think that some left news sites were mocking Biden for saying that Putin was preparing to invade Ukraine as if it was the furthest thing from his mind. What they failed to understand is that Putin isn’t so much a defensive and reactive actor as a bullying and power aggrandizing one. He aim is to restore a greater Russia to its former “glory.” Neither working class internationalism nor Lenin’s right to national self determination are in his vocabulary nor inform his practice. Perhaps long ago and far away they were, but not now. In his mind, they are relics of a different era. The new Putin is disdainful of national boundaries and is comfortable threatening the world with nuclear war.

There’s a lot of soft opposition to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in the name of marxism, class politics, and inter-imperalist rivalries. It’s a fight among oligarchies – Russian, U.S. Ukrainian – we are told. U.S. imperialism has done far worse. NATO set the table here. Seldom, if at all, do Ukraine’s people appear – fighting, dying, fleeing, hoping – in such analyses. Nor does Ukraine’s fledgling democracy merit a word. Nor does Ukraine’s sovereignty get a nod. Even Putin’s order putting Russia’s nuclear forces on alert doesn’t register much in their reflexive scheme. Am I surprised? Not really.

Even if the U.S. and other NATO countries were pressing to admit Ukraine to Nato – which isn’t the case – does it follow that such an action gives Putin the green light to invade the Ukraine. I don’t think so, but more than a few people on the left make this argument either explicitly or by inference.