this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2026
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Russia has no colonies nor neocolonies, and doesn't run their economy based on export of capital and plundering the surplus value of the global south, like the US and EU do.
Imperialism is characterized by the following:
-The presence of monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life.
-The merging of bank capital with industrial capital into finance capital controlled by a financial oligarchy.
-The export of capital as distinguished from the simple export of commodities.
-The formation of international monopolist capitalist associations (cartels) and multinational corporations.
-The domination and exploitation of other countries by militaristic imperialist powers, now through neocolonialism.
-The territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers.
The global north, the US and Europe included, uses this export of capital to super-exploit foreign labor for super-profits. It also engages in unequal exchange, where the global south is prevented from moving up the value chain in production, allowing the global north to charge monopoly prices for commodities produced in the same labor hours. Russia does not do this, it has a paltry sum of the world's finance capital, and this is proven by just how low their nominal GDP is compared to their GDP adjusted to PPP.
Imperialism is characterized by one political entity conquering or annexing thru coercion other political entities to bring new land, population, wealth, and natural resources under their control. No need to muck up or stretch out the definition.
In this case, the Statesian North imperialized the Statesian South, the Soviet Union imperialized Nazi Germany, etc. The definition you're using is absurd and reductionist, the one I'm using is consistent, explains why it exists, how it functions, and how to end it.
If you're truly using "annexation" as a definition of imperialism, then communists don't have a problem with this "annexationist imperialism," as it can absolutely be a good thing. Communists oppose the definition I explained, let's call it "economic imperialism," because it's always bad and is the biggest obstacle to socialism globally.
Changing the name of the process doesn't change the nature of it. Why are you getting so tripped up on what we call it, rather than the process itself?
Did you just make that up
If you pay attention to what Russia does internally and externally, Russia fulfills every one of those requirements except the last one (because they can’t, but they would be very happy too)
Nope, not really. Let's see:
-The presence of monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life.
Somewhat true domestically, Russia has many monopolies as a holdover from the socialist system. However, internationally, this isn't true at all, only 4 of the top 100 companies in the world are Russian. Considering having monopolies on the world stage is necessary for imperialism, this is false for Russia.
-The merging of bank capital with industrial capital into finance capital controlled by a financial oligarchy.
Similar to the first one, somewhat true domestically, but internationally Russia only has one of the top 100 banks. Same as the first, this is therefore false.
-The export of capital as distinguished from the simple export of commodities.
Russia primarily exports raw materials and resources, so no, not at a significant scale. There's more capital flight than export.
-The formation of international monopolist capitalist associations (cartels) and multinational corporations.
Again, Russia has no international monopolies, the closest is that they can make a lot of nuclear reactors. No.
-The domination and exploitation of other countries by militaristic imperialist powers, now through neocolonialism.
No neocolonialism is going on. Russia is annexing the 4 oblasts, but these are not colonies for Russia.
-The territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers.
Russia has no colonies nor neocolonies, no "territory" to claim.
Overall, Russia likely would be imperialist if it was financially more developed and capable of imperialism, but it can't because it isn't.