Britain’s tankies react to Prigozhin’s mutiny

Stop The War movement finds yet another reason to tell Ukraine to stop resisting…

Putin’s regime is in danger of collapse therefore Ukraine should stop fighting…That’s the message from Stop The War. Having been struck dumb by the events of Saturday 24 June, the campaign has finally come out with a line, penned by self-styled Ukraine expert Andrew Murray.

Because there’s a danger Russia’s nukes could fall into the hands of “an enraged oligarch” — rather than just remaining in the hands a fascist dictator — there should be a ceasefire says Murray… leaving Russia in control of Crimea, Donbas and the Azov coast. He writes:

“Between Prigozhin and Putin there is nothing to choose. Russia’s brave anti-war movement, facing state harassment, are the only Russian political forces deserving of solidarity at present. However, there is scant likelihood of them coming to power in the foreseeable future. Waiting for a more progressive regime in Moscow remains a wish, not a policy.”

War built on lies

So far, so predictable. But it gets interesting. Stop The War notes Prigozhin’s accusation that “the whole invasion last year was unnecessary and predicated on lies”. But who helped peddle the lies?

- Who wrote in Dec 2021: “Today, it is NATO that is trying to seize Ukraine by means of moving NATO right up to Russia’s borders”?

- Who urged us to “recognise the truth in Putin’s assertion” that Russian speakers in the Donbas had been “taken away, this time indeed, from their historical motherland”.

- Who claimed there was “mass resistance” to the post-2014 Ukrainian governments in Donbas?

Well knock me sideways, it was Andrew Murray.

Prigozhin, in the video rant that launched the insurrection, contradicts each of Murray’s pre-war claims. There was no NATO aggression:

“On 24 February [2022] there was nothing extraordinary happening there. Now the Ministry of Defence is trying to deceive the public, deceive the president and tell a story that there was some crazy aggression by Ukraine, that — together with the whole Nato bloc — Ukraine was planning to…