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The security concerns of Russia arising from Ukraine’s intentions of joining NATO have been widely discussed in the media. But the IMF’s link with Ukraine which is a parallel issue has scarcely received much attention. The IMF, as is well-known, “opens up” economies around the world for the penetration of metropolitan capital by making them “investor-friendly” through the adoption of a host of anti-workingclass and anti-people (“austerity”)measures; and such “opening up “typically involves the taking over of natural resources of the countries and also their land areas by metropolitan capital. The mechanism that the IMF typically uses towards this end is the imposition of “conditionalities” forgiving loans to countries that are in need of balance of payments support.

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine rages on and a catastrophe looks near than ever, Twitter is where the latest news, analysis, and perspectives can be found. These are coming from the powerful and the most cerebral people of our time. It’s fascinating and engrossing to read the tweets, for example, from Balaji Srinivasan. Wikipedia describes him as a serial entrepreneur and essayist. For this out-and-out American intellectual and entrepreneur of Indian origin, the Wikipedia description is way too inadequate for the public persona that he holds.

India and Bangladesh have profitably introduced bilateral waterways trafficking of goods/cargo in an effort to better integrate their economies some time ago. However, both countries going forward have learnt that future growth may be negatively impacted by natural factors beyond their control.

The ‘cancel culture’ that saw Trump’s courtiers crushed underfoot for supporting the former President, and for refusing to state emphatically that the "election was not stolen”, has now transferred to crushing everybody who will not join the “Kill Putin” circus which has been in town for the last nine days and will not be going away anytime soon.

I never tire of recalling what Joseph Schumpeter, one of the greatest economists and scholars, wrote in his monumental tome: The nearer we are to an epoch the less we understand. Our own we understand the least. It is too early to make an assessment of Russia’s Ukraine war and its implications on the country’s polity and economy. But already some clues are visible.

Recurrent lesson in Russian history is that the top guy in the Kremlin is toast if he loses a war or a high stakes geopolitical gamble. In 1962, Nikita Khrushchev, Cuban missile crisis gamble against JFK backfired and he was booted out from the Politburo by his fellow oligarchs two years later. Tsar Nicholas's armies were gutted by the Germans at the battle of Tannenberg in 1915 and his generals forced him to abdicate the imperial crown in February 1917.

The communist parties of the world, mainly the communist parties of the western countries including the United States, the Britain, France and Germany are facing difficult choices after Russian President Putin’s official declaration of attack against the Ukraine on February 24. Earlier, the western parties, especially of USA have been exposing the NATO and US machinations in Ukraine and found some justification in the Russia’s advance actions near the border.

The ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine has captured the spotlight in the past weeks, with condemnation pouring from all corners. However, Russia seems unfettered and is going on a rampage, capturing the major cities of Ukraine. International organisations and States have registered their outcry. For instance, the United Nations Secretary-General’s (UNSG) statement reflected the gravity of the crisis: the UNSG termed the whole crisis as a ‘…moment of peril’.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and the international condemnation it generated contains key lessons for policymakers.

The Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan Niazi’s visit to the Russian Federation has resulted in a damp squib, if not a ‘diplomatic disaster’. To call it just ill-timed because of Russian invasion of Ukraine is to hide the frustration beneath. True, President Vladimir Putin had little time when Russia’s hell-bent desire to punish Ukraine was the prime priority even to offer diplomatic etiquette in dialogue with him - the entire government at Kremlin having been on pins and needles. The pessimism is over the Pakistani premier’s request for a $1 billion credit advance to Pakistan for the proposed Gas Pipeline project. It has been politely rejected by Putin at the meeting between the two leaders, according to reports.