Rania Khalek Dispatches

For those who just discovered Ukraine two months ago, the fact that Ukrainian nationalism has been dangerously intertwined with fascism might sound like Russian propaganda. But is it?How powerful is the Ukrainian far right? Are they really linked to Nazis? Why is the corporate-owned media denying this? To place this war and the Ukrainian far right in its historical context, Rania Khalek was joined by Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian from Germany, who is currently associate professor of history at Koc University in Istanbul, working on Russian, Ukrainian, and generally East European history. TIME CODES0:00 Intro2:48 Origins of right-wing Ukrainian nationalism5:03 Ukraine during Soviet times8:32 Ukrainian collaboration with Nazis in WW214:27 Ukraine after the Soviet collapse16:43 Post-Soviet right-wing nationalisms & historical revisionism21:23 Understanding Ukraine’s far right factions27:50 Is the US arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine? 33:44 Azov Battalion infiltration of military 38:21 Media whitewashing Nazis49:48 2014’s contribution to rising far right 58:30 Far right threats against Zelensky1:06:26 Boon to the global far right1:11:07 Broken NATO promises to Russia1:19:55 What alternatives did Putin have?1:25:46 Threat of a more militarized Germany & Europe1:39:51 Where to follow Tarik

The war in Ukraine is turning geopolitics upside down, in a global order that already seemed brittle. We have an oil shock, a financial shock, a cold war, a hot war, an ongoing global pandemic all at the same time. Now global supply chains, upon which modern human life depends, have been severed. Supplies of food and fertilizer are threatened for those most dependent on it at a time when global warming curtails our agriculture. This makes urgent once again the so-called “agrarian question,” looking at the world through the perspective of what goes on in the countryside. All this brings into sharper focus the role of global capitalism in causing the conditions of peasants and workers to further deteriorate.To place the current crisis in its context and bring it back to the essential questions facing the majority of humanity, Rania Khalek was joined by Paris Yeros, professor of international economics at the Federal University of ABC in São Paulo, Brazil, who recently wrote a paper calling for a “New Bandung,” referencing the famous 1955 convening of the Afro-Asian Conference. Elements of a New Bandung: Towards an International Solidarity Front, by Paris Yeros:https://parisyeros.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/elements-of-a-new-bandung.pdf TIME CODES0:00 Intro2:01 Ukraine war: Food shortages and famine 5:13 The agrarian question & national sovereignty11:10 Self-sufficiency & the countryside 16:30 Calling for a new Bandung23:23 Existential crisis in Third World & system collapse30:37 Effects of climate crisis on agrarian question33:29 Why China is so important for the Global South38:15 How Global South views war in Ukraine42:15 Structural causes of Ukraine war51:34 What is multipolarity?54:43 Land reform in Zimbabwe1:13:22 Eurocentric social reformism

Mainstream media are whipping up a frenzy against leftists who oppose US imperialism and NATO, smearing them as “Russian agents” for trying to analyze this conflict and its causes with nuance rather than emotion or jingoism.With Western media exclusively focused on Ukraine, simply reminding people that Afghanistan is being starved due to U.S. policies, that Yemen is still being bombed and besiged, and that Syria, Cuba, Iran and Venezuela are still being sanctioned leads to accusations of “whataboutism.” And daring to point out the NATO and US role in setting the stage for Russia’s intervention in Ukraine gets one labeled a “Russian apologist.” To discuss these challenges, Rania Khalek was joined by Justin Podur,a Professor in Environmental and Urban Change at York U in Toronto, author of “Siegebreakers,” and host of The Anti-Empire Project podcast. TIME CODES0:00 Intro2:25 “Whataboutism” & ignoring Afghanistan & sanctions15:16 Correcting the record on Soviet “defeat” in Afghanistan34:30 Splits on the left in war time 45:02 Network of anti-left smear merchants50:04 How to deal with pressure of censorship1:04:20  Russia, anti-imperialism & nuance1:15:45 Shifting global order1:23:02 What is the “international community”1:27:26 How Justin became a leftist 

Many experts on Russia and Ukraine are calling for de-escalation and genuine diplomacy but are being drowned out by a unanimous chorus led by the media and a cacophony of hawkish frauds demanding more war. To break through the war fervor, Rania Khalek spoke to Anatol Lieven, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and author of “Ukraine and Russia: A Fraternal Rivalry.” TIME CODES0:00 Intro5:38 The West could have prevented this war13:00 US policy is prolonging the war 18:01 What are Putin’s motives?23:06 Risk of the far right in Ukraine?28:38 Global dangers of flooding Ukraine w/ weapons32:07 Significance of Chechen fighters in Ukraine34:31 US role in 2014 coup39:07 Peace settlement 46:12 Sanctions on Russia51:39 Most of the world is NOT siding w/ the US56:08 An emboldened NATO59:16 Negative consequences for the West1:03:34 Think tank & media war fervor

The fighting in Ukraine might be a European war but its consequences are global, and it may even cause changes in geopolitical balances, relations and multipolarity. How can we understand this war as anti-imperialists? What will its global economic consequences be? And what will be the result of the unprecedented sanctions imposed on Russia?To help make sense of it all, Rania Khalek was joined by Marxist economist Prahbat Patnaik, professor emeritus at JNU and author of “A Theory of Imperialism” and the more recent “Capital and Imperialism: Theory, History, and the Present,” both co-authored with Utsa Patnaik.Articles by Prabhat Patnaik that are discussed in the video:How Countries Are Escaping Sanctions Under Neo-Liberalism: https://www.newsclick.in/How-Countries-Escaping-Sanctions-under-Neo-Liberalism How IMF Is Closely Linked With the Ukraine Crisis:https://www.newsclick.in/how-imf-closely-linked-ukraine-crisis 

Mainstream media coverage of the war in Ukraine has sought to erase the U.S. and NATO role in setting the stage for the conflict, the Western history of attacking Russia, and Europe’s violent and racist past and present. Joseph Massad, Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University, joins Dispatches with Rania Khalek to remind us of the hypocrisy and history the West has attempted to erase as it escalates the war against Russia in Ukraine.

The impacts of Russia’s war in Ukraine isn’t isolated to Europe. As the US and NATO pour weapons into a Ukrainian insurgency, the risk for confrontation between nuclear-armed power is rising. Does this mark the end of unipolarity and the beginning of a multipolar world? If so, what does that mean? How will support for a Ukrainian insurgency feed into the rise of the global far right? What will be the impact of the war and sanctions on Russia, which are already causing wheat, fertilizer and gas prices to skyrocket? And what should be the anti-imperialist left’s position on these major developments?To help us frame these events in a global context, Vijay Prashad, Executive Director of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and author of “Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations,” joins Dispatches with Rania Khalek. Listen to every episode of Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK

BreakThrough coverage has emphasized the US and NATO role in instigating the violence in Ukraine, which is precisely what the Western media has tried to obscure in recent weeks. We've also hosted many voices from different segments of the left about the war. One of those voices joining Rania Khalek from the Russian left is Alexey Sakhnin, an anti-war activist, journalist and academic of the Soviet era.

It’s not for nothing that the US has been called the “United States of Amnesia.” The same leaders who invaded Iraq and killed a million people, who are starving Yemenis and Afghans, who label Palestinians "terrorists" for throwing rocks, and who took every opportunity to escalate rather than de-escalate the conflict in Ukraine since 2014, have suddenly dusted off their international law books with regard to Russia and are celebrating and promising to arm the Ukranian resistance.To discuss the government and media hypocrisy and dangerous escalation by the West and Russia, Rania Khalek is joined by Ali Abunimah, director of The Electronic Intifada and author of the Battle for Justice In Palestine.

After weeks of sky-high tension, ambiguity and threats, the Russian military crossed into Ukraine and the country's eight year civil war became a war between two post-soviet armies.  While the extent of Putin's goals in the war are unclear, Western countries have been supplying the Ukrainian military with weapons, launched a brutal economic war on Russia, and will support a NATO-backed insurgency against the Russian military. Once war starts, forces are unleashed which can’t easily be contained, dynamics emerge which were unpredicted and the more outside players intervene the longer and bloodier the battles will be. Why did Russia invade Ukraine? How is it impacting Russia domestically? And what comes next? To understand how we got here and what to expect, Rania Khalek spoke to Boris Kagarlitsky, a Marxist professor at the Moscow Higher School for Social and Economic Sciences, and the editor of YouTube channel and web journal Rabkor.