International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

War, economic crisis, and discontent in Putin's Russia

Ashley Smith, Posle — 2026-06-08T13:24:41Z

Vladimir Putin's regime is beginning to show signs of frailty amidst its ongoing imperialist war on Ukraine. Kyiv has fought the regime to a standoff, Russia's casualties mount to about 1.2 million dead and wounded, and Russia's economy, despite the temporary sugar rush of increased oil prices, faces mounting problems. Here Tempest's Ashley Smith interviews the editors of Posle, a Russian socialist website, about Putin's war, regime, popular grievances, and the challenges of resistance under autocracy.

- Features / Russia

Anticolonial fraud: The Kremlin in Africa

Sasha Fokina — 2026-06-08T13:11:31Z

The Kremlin is exploiting anti-imperialist sentiment in Africa to advance its own imperial ambitions.

- Features / Russia, Africa

The Kremlin's Perfect Storm

Posle — 2026-05-27T16:40:55Z

By early May, Putin's regime appeared to be facing a perfect storm: a battlefield stalemate, economic stagnation, and a visibly faltering state response to crises ranging from flooding in Dagestan to a foot-and-mouth outbreak in Siberia. At the same time, the Kremlin intensified mobile-internet blackouts and expanded efforts by the security services to tighten control over social media.

- IVP616 - May 2026 / Russia

Iran Between the Russian and Chinese Models

Gilbert Achcar — 2026-05-04T09:32:37Z

Donald Trump claimed to pursue “regime change” in Iran, but in a manner distinct from the George W. Bush administration's use of the term to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which was framed as bringing democracy after Saddam Hussein's overthrow. As we have repeatedly argued in these pages, even before the joint U.S.-Israeli aggression against Iran (see, for example, “Washington Will Not Bring Democracy to Iran” [Arabic], 10 February 2026), Trump's objective was – and remains – to replicate his Venezuelan strategy: abducting the president to pave the way for a successor willing to cooperate with Washington and its oil interests. In other words, his aim was to “change the regime's behaviour”, not to change the regime itself.

- IVP616 - May 2026 / Russia, China, Iran

Putinism - a new form of fascism?

Ilya Budraitskis — 2026-04-12T10:23:14Z

The invasion of Ukraine has provoked debate on the nature of contemporary Russian society. It has been argued that Russia's war on Ukraine is part of an attack on democracy taking place globally, that Putin's Russia part of a growing authoritarianism.

- Features / Russia, Fascism

In Search of Russia's Lost Opposition

Morten Hammeken — 2026-02-12T15:19:03Z

The Russian state has forced many antiwar leftists into exile, cutting them off from ordinary Russians. But activists are well aware that change in Russia must come from within, mobilizing ordinary people around their own interests.

- Features / Denmark, Russia

Why Russia's ruling class is obsessed with the West

Ilya Budraitskis — 2026-02-12T12:46:03Z

Vladimir Putin and his ruling elite are obsessed with the West “which is simultaneously seen as both the main adversary and the only potential partner”, […] that obsession has “its roots in the reactionary legacy of the Russian Empire”.

- Features / Russia

The reality of the front belies the Kremlin's little music

Daniel Tanuro — 2026-01-05T19:33:52Z

“The Ukrainian resistance is truly admirable, despite the Western brakes. It is more than just resistance. In Kupiansk, the counter-offensive drove the Russians out of the town that Putin himself claimed to have definitively won.”

- IVP612 - January 2026 / Russia, Ukraine

Fighting for the Least Unjust Peace

Oleksandr Kyselov — 2025-12-11T12:16:09Z

Ukrainian leftists hope for an end to the war, but remain sceptical of the “peace deal” on offer.

- IVP611 - December 2025 / United States (USA), Russia, Ukraine

“We Wanted to Show the Whole Range of Anti-War Resistance in Russia”

Simon Pirani — 2025-11-19T15:18:39Z

“They come from different generations, have different life experiences, and hold different political views. This diversity demonstrates that, despite the absence of public demonstrations and the lack of any real possibility of organizing an open anti-war movement in Russia, an anti-war movement does exist there.”

- Reviews section / Russia, Ukraine, Reviews