Russia fuels the division of the Western left by creating its Socialist International

MoscowEverything was designed to evoke the splendor of the Soviet Union. As a setting, the House of the Unions, a palace from the late 18th century, next to the Duma, which hosted the wakes of all the leaders of the USSR, from Lenin to Gorbachev; the name, Sovintern, recalling the Comintern (the Communist International); and neoconstructivist typography, in homage to post-revolutionary poster art. However, the international network that was presented this Monday in Moscow “does not want to recreate the Soviet past”, declared Sergei Mironov, the head of the promoting party A Just Russia, but rather to build “a socialism of the 21st century”.

More than a hundred formations from seventy countries around the world have united against “the imperialism of Donald Trump” and “the NATO war against Russia” in Ukraine. The initiative comes a week after the Socialist International, with Pedro Sánchez at the helm, organized a meeting of world progressivism in Barcelona amidst the rise of the far right. In response, Sovintern aims to highlight that Western social democracy no longer represents true socialism, but rather serves the militaristic interests of the United States.

The project has the blessing of the Kremlin. In fact, the relationship between Mironov and Vladimir Putin can only be understood in a unique political context like the Russian one. A Just Russia was born twenty years ago under the auspices of Vladislav Surkov, then deputy chief of the Presidential Administration (and the character on whom The Kremlin Wizard) is based, who wanted to rally the social democratic vote to form a bipartisan alternative to United Russia, Putin's coalition. Since then, Mironov has always been loyal to the Russian president, to the point of renouncing his candidacy in the presidential elections in his favor. “The country needs a strong and experienced leader,” he said in the last campaign, in 2024.

Clash of discourses

Until 2022, A Just Russia was a member of the Socialist International, the organization that brings together the main social democratic parties in the world and which is currently chaired by Sánchez. But with the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian formation was expelled from the movement for its unequivocal support for military operations. Not going any further, the party has sought to use this forum as a platform to support Putin's war and has presented the war as "a struggle against Trump's imperialism."

Some of the delegates share this view, such as the Galician-Argentinean Lois Pérez Leyra, from the Anti-Imperialist International of Peoples, who supports Russia in the "war against fascism." Another Spanish representative, Carlos Martínez, president of Sobirania i Treball, a party founded in Madrid in 2024, advocates for a European peace conference, but, in statements to ARA, agrees that he "sees no point in NATO's war against Russia." Also to ARA, Peter Higgins, from the minority Labour Party of Great Britain, shows "understanding and empathy with Russia's security needs" and describes the Atlantic Alliance as "the manifestation of imperialism in the world and the main threat to peace," while calling for a "red front."

These heated speeches, classics of the anti-capitalist left, contrast with the emptiness of what was said by the spokesperson for A Just Russia at the plenary session. Paraphrasing Putin, Aleksander Babakov, has strung together a series of empty pronouncements such as "people must be the objective of economic development" or "everything must be subordinated to goals that contribute to human life."

The Russian social democratic party is also very conservative regarding the family model and supports the Kremlin's repression against the LGTBI movement. From Sobirania i Treball, they assure that they have "absolutely nothing" against this group, although they do oppose "transgenderism" and "wokism," which they consider "the main enemy of socialism." The Labour Party of Great Britain prefers not to argue with A Just Russia and concludes: "If we allow identity politics to divide us, we will get nowhere."

A Kremlin operation?

One of the fears of some attendees is that Russia will empty the platform of content and only focus on the photo and on demonstrating to the world that it is not isolated. This is the case for participants from the Spanish confederal left present at the meeting, who reject the possibility of the Kremlin using them. It would not be the first time Moscow has tried to position itself as an alternative center to the order led by Washington and Brussels, either by creating its own version of Eurovision or its alternative to the Socialist International.

The Kremlin tends to make use of actors dissatisfied with the direction of the West in order to consolidate global left-wing forces under its political influence. All this with the ultimate purpose of undermining the unity of the European Union, spreading anti-Western narratives and justifying aggression against Ukraine.