Leer texto completo [PDF]El imperialismo custodia la explotación de los trabajadores y el sometimiento de la periferia, con mecanismos adoptados a las transformaciones del capitalismo. Ese amoldamiento no se ha consumado en la actualidad. El liderazgo norteamericano está socavado por el deterioro económico y los fracasos bélicos. Carece además de la plasticidad que tuvo su antecesor británico para traspasar el mando.
Rusia no participa de ese circuito dominante, pero motoriza la gestación de un imperio no hegemónico, muy distinto al zarismo y a la URSS. El protagonismo de China no es sinónimo de expansión imperial. Sus estrategias defensivas coexisten con una restauración capitalista incompleta, que incluye igualmente la acumulación de beneficios a costa de la periferia. Otras disputas por la preeminencia regional actualizan el status del subimperialismo.
La centralidad de la coerción es diluida por las tesis meramente hegemonistas. El sistema imperial actual diverge de las viejas rivalidades entre potencias y no se clarifica con criterios económicos. Las confrontaciones geopolíticas desmienten la tesis de un imperio global sostenido por clases y estados transnacionalizados.

Many differences separate modern-day Russia from the tsarist era. Russia’s convergence with Western powers has been replaced by serious clashes. This confrontation has established expansive tendencies of a different kind. Comparisons with the USSR omit the absence of capitalism under that system. There were mechanisms of external oppression, but no Soviet imperialism. Russia’s secondary place in the imperialist hierarchy is not synonymous with sub-imperialism. Nor does an ambiguous relationship with the world’s dominators prevail. Internal colonialism has resurfaced, but it does not define imperial status, nor does it determine the nature of national movements in the post-Soviet sphere.

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The criteria outlined by Lenin in his text on imperialism do not help clarify Russia’s imperial status today. Its economy does not meet the criteria demanded in terms of the domination of finance, the global importance of its monopolies or its levels of capital exports. An intermediate profile prevails, one that is distant from the dominant countries. China, on the other hand, has reached this podium without becoming an imperial power. Russia’s imperial status cannot be determined by economic indicators. The concepts of the last century must be moulded to the new realities of capitalism. Lenin’ main legacy is concentrated in his characterisations of war.Leer texto completo [PDF]

Leer texto completo [PDF]The status of imperial power cannot be clarified by liberal prejudices. The consolidation of capitalism is an existing precondition of that status. But imbalances in the economic model and the country’s semi-peripheral insertion undermine this position. Russia is not part of the dominant circuit of contemporary imperialism and is harassed by the United States. It is also developing a policy of active geopolitical intervention, with actions in line with its weight within the military-industrial complex. The concept of a non-hegemonic empire in gestation offers the best definition of its current stage. The outcome of the war in Ukraine will either lead to the consolidation or dissipation of this profile.

Washington’s bullying and the gulf with tsarism do not place Moscow outside the imperial universe. Its embryonic place in this space negates the characterisation of the country as a semi-colony. Military arsenal is a defining feature of a foreign policy that includes oppressive tendencies. The intervention in Kazakhstan illustrates this dynamic of a power with a long tradition of international protagonism. Putin is not a progressive leader. He validates the privileges of millionaires, arbitrates between chauvinists and liberals, manipulates elections and harasses the left. Anti-imperialist projects are forged with popular subjectsLeer texto completo [PDF]