The kremlin Has Gathered Fringe Left-Wing Groups to Replace the Socialist International

The founding forum of the international socialist network “sovintern” took place in moscow, initiated by the “just russia” party. The official goal is to create a platform for left-leaning forces and develop a joint manifesto for inter-party cooperation. The real goal is to patch up the holes left by the international isolation into which russia has driven itself.

Until February 2022, the “Just russia” was a member of the Socialist International – a global alliance of socialist, social democratic, and labor parties headquartered in London. In March 2022, the Socialist International’s governing bodies expelled it along with other russian parties in response to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The organizers claim that the forum brought together over 100 parties and movements from more than 70 countries – Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The actual picture, according to available data, was an order of magnitude more modest. However, for the kremlin, it is not the numbers that matter, but the image.

Following the forum, participants adopted several declarations. Some condemned the USA’s actions regarding Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela – that is, the standard anti-Western playbook. A separate document concerned Ukraine: it contained a call to resolve the war by “eliminating its root causes”. This is a verbatim reproduction of official moscow rhetoric – the very same rhetoric the kremlin uses to justify its aggression and shift responsibility for it onto Kyiv and the West.

“sovintern” serves a dual purpose. On the international stage, it creates the illusion of broad support and provides a channel for promoting russian narratives about Ukraine and sanctions policy. Within the country, it strengthens the position of the “just russia” as a systemic competitor to the communist party of the rf (cprf) and, at the same time, as the kremlin’s tool for managing the left-wing electorate.

russia, cut off from civilized international frameworks, is building its own – out of fringe parties, anti-Western movements, and familiar rhetoric. A new “international” under an old banner.