Zyuganov. The remnants of the petty stalinist bureaucracy want total war.
Zyuganov. The American and European press meanwhile celebrated that the Russian army's withdrawal from the Kharkov region (some 3,000Km²) was generating the first serious backlash within the Russian establishment in years. The problem, which was left for the body of the text, is that those raising their voices beyond Telegram were [the worst warmongers](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/10/world/europe/russia-ukraine-retreat-putin.html?searchResultPosition=2), for whom the government's war mobilization is insufficient. Zyuganov, the longtime leader of the so-called *Communist Party of the Russian Federation*, an ultranationalist Putinist party that gathers the vote of the petty bourgeoisie and pensioners in the smaller provincial capitals, [articulated the message](https://t.me/matveevkomment/3250) within the regime's political apparatus. > How is a special military operation different from a war? You can stop a military operation at any time. You can't stop a war, it ends in victory or defeat. We have no right to do that. Don't panic now. We need a complete mobilization of the country, we need completely different laws. Translation: martial law, forced conscription and total mobilization of society for war. ## Scene 3: The "invisible hand" in the Caucasus and Central Asia 
Border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan this morning
Nagorno-Karabakh border [fighting resumes](https://ift.tt/aU3zJ4c). Russia rushes to Armenia's aid and they agree on [joint measures to "stabilize the border"](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/13/deadly-clashes-erupt-between-armenia-azerbaijan). The US meanwhile asks Moscow [to get involved](https://www.interfax.ru/world/862008). In other words: to send more troops. The *Collective Security Treaty Organization*, which as we [already saw in Kazakhstan](https://marxismo.school/communia/es/protestas-en-kazajistan), functions as a common repressive body of the regimes in the region, agreed [to send troops to *relieve* Russia](https://www.interfax.ru/world/862010). But as if an *invisible hand* had planned to exploit every last border conflict between the same CSTO members, this very night the [mortar fire between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan](https://www.interfax.ru/world/862023) began. And as in Nagorno-Karabakh, [it does not seem to abate as the hours go by](https://www.trtworld.com/asia/new-border-conflict-between-kyrgyzstan-and-tajikistan-turns-deadly-60762). Meanwhile, in Georgia, the pressure of the *invisible hand* on the government through opposition parties and media pundits for the opening of a new front of war against Russia is such that the ruling party has finally proposed [to hold a referendum on the reopening of hostilities](https://euroweeklynews.com/2022/09/13/georgian-dream-party-promises-to-hold-referendum-on-beginning-war-on-russia/). ## Winter is coming In Germany the ruling classes are [increasingly aware](https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/rezession-und-die-angst-vor-dem-absturz-wie-schlimm-wird-es-in-deutschland-a-ad8f5e71-6c5c-44cd-ba48-44bd014d4d27) that [they are losing their place in the global imperialist game](https://marxismo.school/communia/es/los-trabajadores-y-fin-de-alemania-como-gran-potencia). But, [prodded by the US](https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/usa-draengen-deutschland-mehr-fuer-die-ukraine-zu-tun-a-64ab4a9f-816c-472e-a997-94a443d037b9) and with [the Greens leveraging the government to break Scholz's reluctance](https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/annalena-baerbock-und-olaf-scholz-die-gruenen-muessen-beim-kampf-um-panzerlieferungen-die-spd-bewegen-a-abd64fd3-b0ec-48bb-a6f6-73d4be70c8ee), they have embraced "more war" as a daily mantra. The total mobilization of the media industry for the slaughter is a fact. The German press [ponders the virtues of the Ukrainian counter-offensive](https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/ukraine-militaerexperte-ed-arnold-ueber-den-erfolg-der-gegenoffensive-a-998290a9-9905-4a01-97ab-cdd591970afd) while downplaying and associating [Nazis, anti-socials and weirdos](https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/ein-land-in-panikmodus-rechte-angstmacher-und-die-energiekrise-spiegel-tv-a-668ea9d4-691e-402e-84ed-5e482f19321d) with the anxiety about the effects of the energy crisis and the rejection of the war. This is no different practically anywhere in the EU. The European bourgeoisies are *committed* to war. When Ukraine was retreating, they told us it was too early to negotiate anything. When Ukraine advances, they tell us that the only possible peace will come from a total triumph over Russia and that we must *persevere*. Meanwhile, the *invisible hand* of diplomacy and intelligence services sows new hotbeds of conflict from the far reaches of Central Asia to the Caucasus. And the slaughter multiplies. We cannot expect anything else. Neither the disasters of the war economy nor the barbarism in the form of piled-up corpses will sway the imperialist interests at stake. Neither in Moscow, nor in Washington, nor in the European capitals. This is all capitalism has to offer us. In the EU, in the US and in Russia, the ruling classes want more war, more barbarism, more slaughter. It is their way of *securing business* for the future. In their *big game*, war does not stop in Ukraine, not even in Russia. On the horizon is to encircle, or put an end to, Chinese competition. And for that they already insinuate a rosary of *Ukraines*. [They do not care](https://marxismo.school/communia/es/la-gran-conmocion-del-mundo) whether the consequences of the war include more crises in their rearguard... as long as they do not find a response in the move towards a war economy which sucks the incomes of the workers in order to revive capital and feed militarism. They maintain and will maintain the bet as long as it does not mean having to confront the workers. That is why the war can be stopped. In the end, the capacity of capital to maintain and increase its bet on imperialist confrontation, a bet in which all national capitals are involved, depends on capital's capacity to sustain the war effort without contestation on the part of the social class that sustains production. That is why the slaughter can be stopped. We, the workers, can. The options of a peace conceived in the chancelleries or on the battlefields are closed. On the other hand, the road to a peace imposed by a response to the impoverishment that is being imposed on us to take the war further [is already open](https://marxismo.school/communia/es/huelgas-salvajes-2022). We must travel down this road.