"Many have proposed in parliament to formalize and make this common practice, by making exemption to mobilizaton [sic] explicitly tied to wages, but such efforts have been met with criticism."
What parliament? What common practice? What criticism?
There haven't been elections (free or rigged) in Ukraine since May of 2024. Zelensky is a Nazi despot. The government is illegal. What common practice? About 12-percent of the Ukrainian population has either fled to Europe or Russia. What criticism? Zelensky did away with mainstream media in Ukraine. There is now only one channel -- the Zelensky network.
Ukraine is a gangster state run by thugs and thieves. At first it was looked down upon by the West and the country was forced to grovel and beg for support. After meeting face-to-face with its sponsors, Ukraine had a revelation. Their leaders were weak and ineffective. Then everything changed. Ukraine is now calling the shots and giving the West marching orders because they can. They are the corrupt mob bosses who live with death everyday and are not afraid of it. The West is afraid of everything, particularly defeat. It will do everything Ukraine orders it to do in order to avoid it. The proxy is now the master leading us into disaster. Black Hole indeed.
"full-scale" - Lazy trope, indicative of western state-adjacent media/narrative machine. Stopped reading. Any analysis that hinges on such a characterization in light of the reality of the SMO is invalid. Next you'll be writing about the North Korean brigades savagely murdering Ukrainian civilians.
I would disagree with your assessment about Russia, except for your take on Nabiullina, who was Western trained - Putin seems to be cracking down on the oligarchs and has used the conflict to do so further. Since coming to office, Putin has been gradually eroding the power of the Russian oligarchs.
Another consideration is that Russia, if anything, is expanding its state sector. The Russian economy post-war will likely be one where the state plays a larger role and the private sector a smaller role, In that regard, it's the opposite approach..
The Croatian American analyst Brian Berletic (who lives in Thailand) gives a good analysis of this:
Prigozhin's mutiny was quickly put down and widely condemned in Russia, which gives you an idea of the limits of the power of the oligarchs. Increasingly, it is the state that has neutered the oligarchs, whereas in Ukraine and the West, the oligarchs control the state.
The same is true about China, which is even less neoliberal than Russia and is arguably moving away even more, as it moves away from finance / real estate bubbles.
The big issue will be keeping inequality in both nations down after the war. Living standards have improved in both Russia and China since 2022, with the sanctions having helped drive a wave of industrialization in Russia. Blue collar workers and those in the military often warn more in Russia than those who are white collar workers, for example.
I think this is late capitalism for the West and Ukraine, but less so Russia and China.
Yes, there's an element of Neoliberal capitalism in this war as well. There are oligarchs on both sides of war who push against nationalization of private enterprises. Thus war effort has to be balanced with wishes of oligarchs (or so called 'markets'). Russia has taken immense damage to wealth of its oligarchs due to global sanctions although these oligarchs are finding ways to bypass it. Ukrainian oligarchs have a breathing space because a lot of material support is coming from abroad. The big constraint for Ukraine is manpower.
First and foremost, thanks for writing this post; thanks for the writing and thanks it being in English. I appreciate your PoV, in particular, your "neo-liberal war" observation.
However...I must quibble over:
"neoliberal, late capitalist societies, when confronted for the first time by peers, made war as limited as they could and fought keeping an eye on the stock market."
It is a nice summation of the Ukraine conflict, especially if you make it clear the conflict is between the US (neoliberal and hence market directed) and Russia (non-neoliberal, and hence state directed) nations.
Your explanation of Kyiv feels like Saigon a year before the US Embassy had to close. Lots of ingenious ways to raise money, granted there were no malls, but there were lots of lights, lots of glitter before things had to change...
Ernest Mandel saw this state as one of exhaustion, of double-downing. With Covid - lockdown gambit the regime failed to close the pitch. They fell short. A fatal shortcoming.
"Many have proposed in parliament to formalize and make this common practice, by making exemption to mobilizaton [sic] explicitly tied to wages, but such efforts have been met with criticism."
What parliament? What common practice? What criticism?
There haven't been elections (free or rigged) in Ukraine since May of 2024. Zelensky is a Nazi despot. The government is illegal. What common practice? About 12-percent of the Ukrainian population has either fled to Europe or Russia. What criticism? Zelensky did away with mainstream media in Ukraine. There is now only one channel -- the Zelensky network.
Ukraine is a gangster state run by thugs and thieves. At first it was looked down upon by the West and the country was forced to grovel and beg for support. After meeting face-to-face with its sponsors, Ukraine had a revelation. Their leaders were weak and ineffective. Then everything changed. Ukraine is now calling the shots and giving the West marching orders because they can. They are the corrupt mob bosses who live with death everyday and are not afraid of it. The West is afraid of everything, particularly defeat. It will do everything Ukraine orders it to do in order to avoid it. The proxy is now the master leading us into disaster. Black Hole indeed.
"full-scale" - Lazy trope, indicative of western state-adjacent media/narrative machine. Stopped reading. Any analysis that hinges on such a characterization in light of the reality of the SMO is invalid. Next you'll be writing about the North Korean brigades savagely murdering Ukrainian civilians.
I would disagree with your assessment about Russia, except for your take on Nabiullina, who was Western trained - Putin seems to be cracking down on the oligarchs and has used the conflict to do so further. Since coming to office, Putin has been gradually eroding the power of the Russian oligarchs.
Another consideration is that Russia, if anything, is expanding its state sector. The Russian economy post-war will likely be one where the state plays a larger role and the private sector a smaller role, In that regard, it's the opposite approach..
The Croatian American analyst Brian Berletic (who lives in Thailand) gives a good analysis of this:
https://orinocotribune.com/fatal-flaws-undermine-americas-defense-industrial-base/
Prigozhin's mutiny was quickly put down and widely condemned in Russia, which gives you an idea of the limits of the power of the oligarchs. Increasingly, it is the state that has neutered the oligarchs, whereas in Ukraine and the West, the oligarchs control the state.
The same is true about China, which is even less neoliberal than Russia and is arguably moving away even more, as it moves away from finance / real estate bubbles.
The big issue will be keeping inequality in both nations down after the war. Living standards have improved in both Russia and China since 2022, with the sanctions having helped drive a wave of industrialization in Russia. Blue collar workers and those in the military often warn more in Russia than those who are white collar workers, for example.
I think this is late capitalism for the West and Ukraine, but less so Russia and China.
I call it a Goldilocks war - neither too hot nor too cold - a war to be kept at right temperature.
https://takeindiaforward.blogspot.com/2024/09/ukraine-conflict-goldilocks-war.html
Yes, there's an element of Neoliberal capitalism in this war as well. There are oligarchs on both sides of war who push against nationalization of private enterprises. Thus war effort has to be balanced with wishes of oligarchs (or so called 'markets'). Russia has taken immense damage to wealth of its oligarchs due to global sanctions although these oligarchs are finding ways to bypass it. Ukrainian oligarchs have a breathing space because a lot of material support is coming from abroad. The big constraint for Ukraine is manpower.
First and foremost, thanks for writing this post; thanks for the writing and thanks it being in English. I appreciate your PoV, in particular, your "neo-liberal war" observation.
However...I must quibble over:
"neoliberal, late capitalist societies, when confronted for the first time by peers, made war as limited as they could and fought keeping an eye on the stock market."
It is a nice summation of the Ukraine conflict, especially if you make it clear the conflict is between the US (neoliberal and hence market directed) and Russia (non-neoliberal, and hence state directed) nations.
Your explanation of Kyiv feels like Saigon a year before the US Embassy had to close. Lots of ingenious ways to raise money, granted there were no malls, but there were lots of lights, lots of glitter before things had to change...
Ernest Mandel saw this state as one of exhaustion, of double-downing. With Covid - lockdown gambit the regime failed to close the pitch. They fell short. A fatal shortcoming.
The “more” neoliberal side will lose. Will anyone outside of the conflict learn anything from this?