(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Rocket attack by the Russian Ministry of Defense forces on a Wagner camp. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-06-23 Will Russian military infighting return a better socialism to the Russian Federation. The hope from relatively conventional analysts is that the several events that resemble mutinous behavior could move an oligarchic warlord state to a civil war or at least removing Putin. PMC Wagner is a para-military group was attacked by their own side (legit Russian army), and are now saying they will attack back. While symptomatic and resembling other historical examples of warlordism, Russia has other private military groups such as Gazprom’s private security force, but is nowhere near a breaking point even as many such military formations seem symptomatic of corrupt states. By analogy, Americans should worry about a civil war when Trans Canada corporation gets its own army rather than subcontract repression against XL pipeline protests. Corruption has been a key enabler of the Putin regime; illicit networks entrench regime interests and prevent individuals outside the regime from gaining influence within the system. To weaken these barriers, Washington must properly enforce sanctions on the Kremlin’s cronies in the business world, combat money laundering, make financial and real estate markets in the United States and Europe more transparent, and support investigative journalists in their bid to uncover such corruption. The United States can also bolster Russian civil society, an important force in forging a more liberal and democratic country, beginning with supporting the work of the many actors in Russian civil society—including journalists and members of the opposition—who have fled the country since the start of the war in February 2022. Backing them now would help lay the groundwork for a better relationship between the United States and a post-Putin Russia. Ultimately, however, Washington and its allies can do little to directly shape Russia’s political trajectory. A better Russia can be produced only by a clear and stark Ukrainian victory, which is the most viable catalyst for a popular challenge to Putin. Such a resounding defeat is also required to enable Russians to shed their imperialist ambitions and to teach the country’s future elites a valuable lesson about the limits of military power. Support for Ukraine—in the form of sustained military assistance and efforts to anchor the country in the West through membership in the European Union and NATO—will pave the way for improved relations with a new Russia. Getting there will be hard. But the more decisive Russia’s defeat in Ukraine, the more likely it is that Russia will experience profound political change, one hopes for the better. www.foreignaffairs.com/… (2021) Russia after Putin: How to rebuild the state The new government’s first action should be to release all political prisoners and to establish all elementary freedoms of speech, media, assembly, organization, and religion. It should dissolve the Federal Security Service (FSB), the principal security agency of Russia, and dismiss all its employees and form a new judicial system, courts, as well as the general prosecutor’s office. Russia should abandon its presidential system and hold early founding elections at all levels soon after a democratic breakthrough. www.atlanticcouncil.org/... Leftists need to acknowledge that being anti-capitalist is also to recognize that the dominant mode of global production is capitalism and that any socialism in one country must interact with the rest of the planet. Any second Russian revolution should remind itself how such revolts can veer right toward state capitalism as the post-Soviet government has. Right-wing activists in general see globalization as a threat to national economies and identity. Left-wing activists argue that the capitalist logic underlying globalization results in the treatment of every aspect of life as a commodity. The only ‘perfect’ revolutions are the ones that failed. In this way, the western left is freed from the burden of defending what they insist is imperfect, “revisionist” socialism. Is socialism better defined as “the stable control of the state by the evolving interests of the working class”. The simplest example on the anniversary of the Dobb decision is that any move by National Conservatives to nationalize abortion bans does not represent the interests of the working class and all American women. x Inspiring words from @PPFA's @alexismcgill as we approach the Dobb's one year anniversary and a call to action to reimagine abortion rights. "We have the power. You are the power. The numbers are on our side."https://t.co/xm7dTmmlBc — Wendy Davis (@wendydavis) June 21, 2023 A perfect conception of socialism will not sell you a newspaper when there's a world to win. Socialism with American characteristics can happen by reversing the present course of US right-wing activism that resembles a Russian oligarchy that supported the Ukraine war. The thread below the fold reminds leftists to not let perfect be the enemy of good. 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