Just trying to get what people here would see as a range of views on that country that would be part of the "anti-imperialist" spectrum?
Here's my view:
Russia isn't as strong a country militarily as the US. At this point it doesn't have as great a potential to create a global empire as the US does. Nonetheless, it is anti-democratic, repressive and edging towards a set of policies I would describe as state bigotry(official homophobia, repression of non-Russian cultures and non-Russian Orthodox religions), state sanctioned violence(the first reading, but not as yet final passage of the bill legalizing certain forms of violence against women and children within the family), environmental recklessness, and aggressiveness towards neighboring counties, some of which seems to be based on a desire to regain control of areas that gained national independence after 1989.
So I believe Russia is pre-imperialist and will move more and more towards an imperialist program the longer Putin remains in power.
Russia is, in theory, a counterweight to US aggression. But I find it difficult to embrace the implication, which is part of the subtext of some posts and threads here, that Russia should be given at least some sort of tacit international left support as "the enemy of (our)enemy". And while US imperialism needs to be checked, I don't think what Russia is doing will ever truly act as such a check.
I reject the idea that criticism of internal repression within Russia equates to aid and comfort for the American empire, or equates to "Russophobia"-I don't think anyone here hates Russia, Russian culture as such, or the people of the Russian Federation, AND I oppose with equal passion the idea that the US should be in a confrontational posture towards Russia or take any steps that move us closer to a return to the Cold War. Any US-Russian confrontation could easily lead to a nuclear exchange, and I doubt that any nuclear exchange could possibly stop short of the universal extinction of life on this planet.
And I stand in solidarity with all of the people Putin has repressed, as I do with all victims of repression everywhere else.
Would people here consider the views I set out there to be "anti-imperialist" or "imperialist"? And would the rest of you be willing to lay out what YOUR exact views