Russia

Imperialist rivals push Ukraine to brink of war

04 March 2014
Intervention in Crimea has escalated a deadly game between Russia and the West, writes Simon Basketter

Putin raises the stakes in imperialist Crimea crisis

03 March 2014
Russia’s seizure of military control over Crimea has brought Ukraine to the brink of war. This crisis represents the coming together of three distinct conflicts.

As Ukraine’s president flees, who has won?

25 February 2014
After the government falls and rebels claim victory, Simon Basketter looks at the situation in Ukraine

Olympic construction workers beaten in Russia

04 February 2014
The people who worked to prepare for the Winter Olympics in Sochi were subjected to beatings, intimidation and little pay.

An olympic struggle between oligarchs of West and East

04 February 2014
The Winter Olympics in Sochi start this week amid a welter of controversies. Radical lawyer Bill Bowring summed them up—corruption and cronyism surrounding the construction of Olympic facilities, the war between Moscow and Central Asian jihadis, Russia’s anti-LGBT law, and so on.

LGBT activists in Russia vow to defy Putin’s homophobic lies and laws

04 February 2014
The Russian government has provoked and legitimised a wave of homophobia in the run-up to the Winter Olympics.

Concessions fail to stem the crisis in Ukraine

28 January 2014
Oligarchs are exerting their power but protests continue, writes Simon Basketter

Protesters shake government in Ukraine

03 December 2013
Mass Protests were loosening president Viktor Yanukovych’s control of Ukraine as Socialist Worker went to press.

Obama’s Syria deal with Russia shows the limits of US power

17 September 2013
US president Barack Obama has stepped back from his threat to bomb Syria. The US and Russia signed an accord in Geneva last Saturday.

Putin’s homophobic laws lie behind a wave of violent attacks across Russia

13 August 2013
Russian Nazis are using a social networking site to target young gay men for torture, according to the human rights group Spectrum.

How Victor Serge kept the flame of the Russian Revolution alive

04 December 2012
Victor Serge was a revolutionary anarchist who went to Russia in 1919 and joined the communists. His articles, books and novels capture the revolutionary experience in the first half of the 20th century.

Eyewitness from Russia: Vladimir Putin's war on the new left

13 November 2012
The recent arrests of socialist leaders in Russia, on charges of organising riots, are the latest step in the Vladimir Putin government’s attempts to stifle opposition.

Putin jails Pussy Riot activists and cracks down on opposition protest

17 August 2012
Three members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in a prison colony by a Moscow court today, Friday.

Russia's first Occupy protest builds opposition to Putin

16 May 2012
Hundreds of anti-government protesters have been camping out in central Moscow for over a week, in Russia’s first occupy protest.

New mood of opposition to Putin in Russia

08 May 2012
Some 100,000 people took part in an angry demonstration in Moscow on Sunday against the inauguration of President Vladimir Putin.

Russia: anger erupts after election

06 March 2012
Around 20,000 people protested in Pushkin Square in central Moscow on Monday against Vladimir Putin’s claim to have won the presidential election.

Alexandra Kollontai: defining International Women's Day

06 March 2012
A celebration of International Women’s Day in February 1917 was the spark that ignited the Russian Revolution.

Determined Russians demand the removal of Putin

07 February 2012
An angry crowd of more than 100,000 people surged through Moscow last Saturday demanding fair elections.

From peasants to workers

17 January 2012
Russia’s revolutionary movement at the turn of the century was shaped by the country’s large peasantry and small and historically young working class.

The birth of the Bolshevik party

17 January 2012
The Bolshevik party—the party that led the 1917 Russian Revolution—was formed a century ago this month. It did not emerge from nowhere. The Bolsheviks split with the Mensheviks, ending a period in which the two groups had been factions inside the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP).