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Russiagate is a conspiracy theory that the Russian Federation was responsible for Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 United States presidential election against Hillary Clinton. The ruling class is using it to promote war against Russia and to attack leftists and the Black liberation movement.[1][2]
For its liberal target audience, the Russiagate conspiracy theory achieves several things. It pushes an imperialist and jingoistic variety of fascism in the name of fighting the supposedly foreign or "un-American" Trumpist variety of fascism, foments anticommunist sentiment by conflating Russia with the Soviet Union, and legitimizes Ukrainian fascism among Statesians.[3]
Background[edit | edit source]
The United States has interfered in Russian affairs to maintain its own hegemony several times. In 1996, the US meddled in the Russian presidential election to ensure the unpopular pro-Western incumbent, Boris Yeltsin, would win a second term. The Clinton administration recognized that the Communist Party candidate Gennady Zyuganov was outperforming Yeltsin in the polls early in 1996 and so they worked with the Yeltsin campaign team, Russia's bourgeois media, and the Russian bourgeoisie itself to assist Yeltsin's campaign. This also involved transferring billions of dollars to Yeltsin through the International Monetary Fund.[4] In Chechnya, Yeltsin received an impossible number of votes.[5]
Anti-blackness[edit | edit source]
There is a history of white Statesians claiming domestic movements for Black liberation are the result of foreign "agitators" planting ideas among Black people going back as far as slavery and during the civil rights era.[2] In a May 1961 Gallup poll, 17% of Statesians polled characterized the anti-racial segregation Freedom Riders as "agitators, troublemakers, communists, etc." In one from October 1965 asking whether they believed there was communist involvement in demonstrations over Black civil rights, 48% answered "a lot" and 27% answered "some."[6]
After Russiagate became a news story, numerous liberal pundits accused the Russian Federation of manipulating Black activists to "sow political discord" and even undermine the United States.[2]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Brian Becker (2018-04-07). "Past a point of no return: “Russiagate” and the reorientation of U.S. imperialism" Liberation News. Archived from the original on 2022-05-18. Retrieved 2022-10-30.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Real News Network (2017-10-25). "For Russiagaters, Do Black Lives Matter?". YouTube.
- ↑ Lorenzo (2017-10-11). On Russia, Today’s Liberal Luminaries Take Their Cues From Fascists Popaganda. Archived from the original on 2017-11-27. Retrieved 2025-09-02.
- ↑ Sean Guillory (2017-03-13). "Dermokratiya, USA" Jacobin. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
- ↑ “Was the vote counted fairly? The answer appears to be yes. But the evidence available is not conclusive. There is no question that there were serious thefts of votes in some areas. In Chechnya, for example, the Central Electoral Commission counted one million votes, despite the fact that international observers believe that fewer than 500,000 adults live in Chechnya. Even more remarkable, precisely 70.0% of people were reported to have voted for Yeltsin!”
Graham T. Allison and Matthew Lantz. Assessing Russia's Democratic Presidential Election Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Archived from the original on 2010-01-19. Retrieved 2025-07-06. - ↑ "Public Opinion Polls on Civil Rights Movement, 1961-1969". Retrieved 2025-06-24.