The Ukrainian crisis has sparked a revival of the left-wing love affair with Moscow

The Left Renews Its Vows With Moscow

by William R. Hawkins

What motivates the Left is not research, analysis or “truth seeking.” It is motivated purely by hatred. Leftists are alienated from the Western civilization within which they live. They reject its values, scoff at its traditions and label its astounding material success as immoral. Yet, everyone needs to feel part of something larger than themselves. Since they cannot embrace anything akin to national loyalty, they align with foreign regimes or movements that share their opposition to their home country. 

There were many on the Left in the West who lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union as much as Vladimir Putin. 

They saw the USSR as the main restraint on U.S. imperialism; helping to arm and support hostile Third World regimes and creating a zone of “peace” outside the reach of capitalism. 

The leftist view of the world did not change just because the Soviet empire disintegrated. Its motivation is still “anti-imperialist” and it has embraced every movement that has declared itself the enemy of Western civilization. 

The Ukrainian crisis has sparked a revival of the left-wing love affair with Moscow. 

What amounts to a renewal of vows in the ideological marriage of the Cold War is evident in how events are presented, with Russia again embraced for standing up to the United States and the European Union.

The Nation has, of course, taken its usual “blame the West first” explanation for the Ukraine crisis. It’s April 15 report cites the magazine’s long-serving editor, Katrina vanden Heuvel, as saying, “We are witnessing civil war,” one that was “triggered by the European Union’s reckless ultimatum—despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer of a tripartite agreement—which compelled an elected president of a deeply divided country to choose economically between the West and Russia.” 

In truth, it was Russia’s stooge Viktor Yanukovych who broke off talks with the EU to lead Kiev into the Russian camp. His actions prompted an uprising of the Ukrainian people who did not want to be sold back into a revived Kremlin empire. 

In the face of an aroused Ukrainian populace, Putin realized there was no chance of controlling a democratically chosen Kiev government. So he resorted to force to grab what parts of the country he thinks Russia can hold.

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