For more than a decade now sections of the
British left have been fawning over reactionary tyrant Vladimir Putin. From
Ukraine to FIFA there are certain members of what some may describe as the
Chomskyite left who will parrot Russian propaganda word for word. I personally am
uncomfortable with throwing Professor Chomsky in with George Galloway and the
like- his writings tend to contain a degree of nuance and empiricism which are
lacking from his self appointed disciples.
Nevertheless what is clear is that there is a very obvious yearning for
the Cold War certainties of the 20th century. I can very well
understand the impulse to defend, rightly or wrongly the actions of the Soviet
Union against Western capitalism but that’s all finished now. The wall came
down and in preceding 2 decades Yeltsin and Putin have set about creating an
authoritarian form of Russian nationalism, which has abandoned free services
for the free market.
