Meanwhile, Johnson is beating a war drum against Russia's Putin over Ukraine.  Perhaps he hopes to have a quick "Churchill moment", in the light of all the calls to resign!  So on Monday he claimed that the 60 Russian battle groups massed on the Ukraine border were evidence of a “plan for a lightning war that could take out Kyiv”.  And he warned Russia's Putin not to attack - because this would be a disaster "for us all"... 

    Putin has been deploying troops and military hardware along Russia's border with Ukraine since last November.  However his foreign minister Lavrov continues to deny that Russia has any intention of invading.  Indeed, this deployment is a bargaining chip.  Talks are still proceeding between EU leaders, US president Biden and Russia's president Putin.

    For Putin, the threat is perceived to come from NATO.  For years he has been complaining about the siting of NATO missiles and the military support being provided to the countries along Russia's western border and lately, to Ukraine.  This was one of the reasons for his 2014 occupation of east Ukraine and Crimea - and of course the fact that these parts of Ukraine were predominantly Russian-speaking and Russian-identifying anyway, thus in Putin's view, "rightfully" Russian.

    NATO, established during the Cold War to "resist" the then USSR, was never disbanded when the USSR collapsed.  Today, Cold War rhetoric is being revived.  For all the imperialist leaders, but Biden in particular, hyping up the threat of war with Russia is a useful distraction from the domestic crises they all find themselves in...

    So Biden has put 8,500 troops on standby.  Britain has sent weapons.  On Saturday, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss declassified secret service intelligence claiming Russia was plotting to install a puppet leader in Ukraine.  One might wonder why, if the US and Britain are in conflict with Putin, they had nothing to say about the Russian troops sent to Kazakhstan two weeks ago, which shot and killed working class demonstrators fighting against price rises?

    In fact today, the imperialist leaders - led by the US - are willing to share their role of global policeman, even with someone like Putin, to maintain their degenerate and increasingly unstable "world order".  And at the same time they threaten Putin himself, if he tries to break their rules.  And never mind the potentially catastrophic consequences for the populations who might be caught in the crossfire.