Libs will sometimes support Palestine (but only so long as they are being well-behaved victims; they usually don't support armed resistance) just like reactionaries will sometimes support Russia (they tend to do this for the wrong reasons though). Only one of these is not sufficient by itself. The real litmus test of an anti-imperialist is doing both.

Thank you so much for writing this. As a Romanian myself i was appalled to read that take by a fellow comrade here, but unfortunately not in the least surprised. The indoctrination in Romania into "Greater Romania" irredentism and nationalist mythology is incredibly pervasive and nearly impossible to escape. It's the one thing that has a larger consensus in Romanian society than anti-Roma racism. It took me a long time to grow out of these myths that are drilled into us from the time we are young children, and i was only able to take a step back and look at the whole thing objectively because i haven't lived there for what is by now a majority of my life. I can only imagine how hard it is not to fall in line with this thinking if you live there and are surrounded by a society which almost to the last person buys into this and where all sides of the media spectrum are constantly pushing the idea of ("re-")unification regardless of the sentiments of the people in Moldova itself. So please don't judge the OP of that comment too harshly, i have hope that they will take this as an opportunity to learn and reflect.

Ah, i see another location has just become "strategically unimportant".

Yeah i really had to do a double take at reading that, i could not believe that they are seriously trying to blame what is happening in Palestine on Russia and China. We're hitting levels of delusional that should not even be possible.

The point of becoming the global hegemon is much like that of establishing a monopoly, it is never having to compete again. That is after all the ultimate goal of every capitalist. It is only logical that once a capitalist achieves a monopoly they will use all means at their disposal offered to them by their position of dominance to prevent any new competition that could pose a threat to their position from arising. This isn't pathetic and any rational actor in their position would do the same.

The point as we Marxists always say is not that the individuals in positions of power in capitalism are morally deficient (i mean they are, but that's not the point...and whether that's because being in their position made them that way or because you only get to that position by being morally deficient is a bit of a chicken-and-egg question), it's that the entire system is built in such a way as to incentivize and produce these sorts of behaviors.

As such the solution isn't to simply switch out the leaders for less "pathetic" ones, it's to topple the entire system of capitalist imperialism altogether.

It's like that scene from Monty Python with the suicide squad. They collectively stab themselves and then say "that showed them, huh?".

I've heard many people say they'll vote Putin till he's gone and then vote KPRF

This makes a lot of sense to me and explains the temporary bleed off of support from KPRF to Putin especially for this presidential election. A lot of Russian communists are very patriotic and with a "rally around the flag" effect i can imagine them deciding to support the president in wartime even if they would otherwise have voted KPRF instead. This is not easy for most western communists to understand since we have a very different relationship to our own countries and leaders.

We always have to remember that it is Putin who most Russians see as having led the country out of the horrific situation they were in at the end of the 1990s, massively restoring the economy, standard of living, and the strength and international standing of Russia. They view him as having given them back their dignity. This is limited to Putin himself though and does not translate to other politicians in his party, so once he has left the scene we will see great opportunities for big changes, for good or for bad.

That is also why the West is so desperate to get Putin out because they hope that in the struggle that will inevitably follow him leaving power the way will be opened for the kind of changes they want to see (either bring Russia back to its knees and re-colonize it as in the 90s or "finish the job" and completely dismantle it). Communists must be aware that this is being prepared and themselves prepare, build up their strength and be ready to seize that opportunity to steer Russia once that time comes in the opposite direction instead, the direction of socialism.

But i have to stress here the importance of timely preparation. The West never rests and is always plotting and preparing the ground for their color revolution attempts years and years in advance spending millions and millions of dollars building up their subversion and propaganda networks. We communists must also never rest and never stop organizing, agitating, educating and building a mass working class movement, whether it is in Russia or wherever else we live.

So what you're saying is "Media Bias Fact Check" is extremely biased and can't tell fact from fiction (or are knowingly lying). Good to know. Thanks! Now i can mark them off as liberal propaganda and know that reality is likely the complete opposite of whatever they say about a media source.

How I remember the difference:

Towing is what you do with boats and trucks.

Toeing is what you do with lines and foot fetishists.

To those who downvoted, care to explain why?

Argentina and Iran were pretty much a done deal, and Saudi Arabia was a maybe but i didn't expect Egypt so soon, and Ethiopia was the most positive surprise of all. This has the potential to do a ton of economic good for Ethiopia and i am really happy for them, they deserve a win after the hard times they've been having recently fighting against their US backed rebels.

That Russia give the Donbass and Crimea to Ukraine so Ukraine can ethnically cleanse them. That Russia pay reparations and have its current government put on trial. Sorry but none of that is ever going to happen, we'll sooner see nuclear armageddon than any of that.

Any "peace plan" that starts with "Russia must pull its troops out of all of what Ukraine considers theirs" is not a serious proposal, it is a joke. You may as well ask the US to give Texas back to Mexico. Any serious negotiation must acknowledge current territorial realities.