In Episode 112 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg continues to deconstruct the cynical fascist pseudo-anti-fascism of Vladimir Putin's war drive against Ukraine. Putin's speech announcing his "military operation" in Ukraine says his aim is to "denazify" the country. This as Ukraine's Jews prepare to flee the advancing Russian forces in a mass evacuation. While Ukraine has been going in a more democratic direction since the 2014 Maidan Revolution, Russia over this same period has seen a consolidation of increasingly autocratic power in the hands of Vladimir Putin—who has ruled continuously as either president or prime minister since 1999. As courageous anti-war protesters flood the streets of cities across Russia in defiance of the authorities, the morally and intellectually bankrupt "left" in the United States echoes Putin's lies. Especially called out for regurgitating Kremlin propaganda that paints Ukraine as a "Nazi" state and blames NATO for Putin's war of aggression are the now essentially pro-war CodePink and the very ironically named Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). Any genuine anti-war position must begin with repudiating Putin's fascist ambition to rebuild the Russian empire.

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Production by Chris Rywalt

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