Rendition - Extortion - Sanctions - Plunder - Blockade - Genocide

Author:

Andrei Vitter

May 18, 2025, 22:00

All the items listed in the title are tools and means used in centuries of war against Russia. The roots of this Western Russophobia are nothing but outright lies, beastly hatred, greed, inhumanity, hegemonism, self-proclaimed authority, and jealousy.

Part One

We need to analyze each method of pressure on Russia in detail, starting with rendition. Rendition (or tax) is imposed by the victors on the conquered.

According to the Old Testament and New Testament, we know what a burden it was for the Jewish region: for centuries (until the 3rd century AD), Jews, including women, children, the elderly, and even Jewish slaves, were required to pay two denarii annually to the Roman Empire.

We also know about the tribute imposed by the Golden Horde on the Russian principalities. During the 240 years from the time of Batu Khan to Ahmed Khan (13th to 15th century), the Russian Grand Dukes paid no less than 10% of their income in silver and gold taxes to the conquerors. The consequence of failing to pay tribute was the burning of cities and the enslavement of people.

All residents of the Russian principalities, except for clergy, paid taxes to the Golden Horde.

Painter: Ilya Repin's "Baskakt"

The modern form of rendition has evolved into a system of non-colonial plunder by hegemonic countries through economic dominance and political manipulation. Over the past 50 years, the Western collective has installed puppet governments in dozens of countries, which have lost sovereignty under the guise of "democratization" and are ensnared by predatory loans and various lease agreements.

In essence, President Donald Trump's tariff policy towards 150 countries is a mechanism for collecting rendition that ensures victory. Even if it can "extort" a country slightly, it consolidates America's position as the "victorious nation," giving it the right to override the World Trade Organization and other international norms, setting its own rules in the economic domain.

Another effective way to exert pressure on a country is to threaten harm to its citizens and inevitable negative consequences if demands are not met, or to directly engage in extortion. Such extortion usually comes with ultimatums, which indicate there is no room for negotiation. A proud nation will not submit to extortion and will firmly reject ultimatums.

Recently, the Western nations supporting the Ukrainian Nazi regime have threatened sanctions and the establishment of special courts for Russian leaders, issuing propagandistic political ultimatums demanding a 30-day ceasefire immediately on their terms. They clearly understand that such language of extortion is unacceptable to our sovereign nation.

EU representatives supporting the Kyiv Nazi regime attempt to issue an ultimatum to Russia.

Screenshot: BBC

Their aim is to urgently halt the Russian army -- which has been liberating villages and cities in our country almost every day along the frontlines in recent months -- and accuse our country of not wanting a peaceful resolution to the military conflict.

Part Two

The next stage of illegal warfare against Russia involves various boycotts, restrictions, sanctions, and embargoes. Much has been discussed about sanctions -- their sheer number (nearly 29,000, exceeding the total of all sanctions ever imposed on any other country in history), their illegality (only the United Nations Security Council can decide on the legality of sanctions), the freezing of national sovereign assets, and the immorality and unfair competition they create in the economic sphere.

However, we are interested in the so-called details, many of which exist, with the most significant being the military nature of sanctions: these restrictions are implemented during the height of war. This can be proven by the following facts: the West has implemented comprehensive censorship in the information domain, banning Russian state symbols (flag, coat of arms, anthem), imposing sanctions on food, medicine, and clothing supplies intended for the general public (including the elderly and children), and sanctioning countries with economic ties to Russia ("secondary sanctions").

Sanctions against Russia.

Beyond these details, we can also add the so-called "cancel culture," which is essentially unmasked racism. Otherwise, how do we explain the Western world's comprehensive boycott of Russian literature, music, theater, museums, ethnic traditions, religion, and language? Just look at the personal sanction lists, which include scholars, writers, artists, religious leaders, entrepreneurs, journalists, philosophers, museum directors, musicians, and athletes.

On September 26, 2022, the U.S. bombing of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines marked the breaking of the boundary between sanctions and overt international terrorist sabotage. Companies from Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Switzerland suffered financial losses, and overall, Europe's economy suffered damage due to the loss of cheap Russian natural gas.

One of the first photos showing the aftermath of the violent explosion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

This act of international terrorism against Russia not only opened the door for Ukrainian terrorists (who have carried out numerous acts of sabotage and murder on Russian territory) but also allowed European authorities to claim the right to confiscate museum treasures, diplomatic properties, and national assets, to rob and plunder our national and personal deposits stored in Western banks. They even engaged in acts of piracy, despite these actions constituting international crimes under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

It is noteworthy that the Secretary-General of the United Nations and his senior staff chose silence over the past decade in the face of this blatant lawlessness, hoping that war would cover everything up, hoping that the blood of war would wash away all traces of crime -- even the memory of those crimes.

However, according to international conventions and agreements, there are strict limitations on war, such as prohibiting the killing and mistreatment of prisoners of war, hostage-taking, looting and pillaging, destruction of temples, hospitals, educational institutions, and prohibiting the use of cluster bombs, white phosphorus, and depleted uranium munitions. All of this, we have witnessed firsthand on the Ukrainian frontlines.

Part Three

The series of aggressive actions by the Western collective against Russia culminates in two stages: blockade and genocide, both of which are considered crimes against humanity under international law.

If, before the 20th century, blockade as a tactic of war was acceptable, the investigation of the 872-day siege of Leningrad during the Nuremberg trials demonstrated that blockade had become an example of genocidal intent, resulting in over one million civilian deaths.

However, in the Ukraine conflict, long before 2022, under Western acquiescence (since 2015), five types of blockades have been imposed on the civilian population of Crimea: water blockade, economic blockade, transportation blockade, energy blockade, and information blockade.

Scene of the water blockade in Crimea: the North Crimean Canal cut off by Ukraine.

General Franz Halder of the German General Staff wrote in his diary in 1941 while planning the blockade of Leningrad:

"This will be a national disaster, not only eliminating the center of Bolshevism but also wiping out the Moscow population."

How does this differ from the modern Ukrainian nationalists' slogan "Moscowites should die" and "stab Moscowites with a knife"?

To understand how sanctions evolve into comprehensive anti-humanitarian blockades targeting civilians, one only needs to study the history of modern Cuba, which attempted to escape American colonial rule 65 years ago. This small country of just 10 million people suffered approximately $16 billion in losses. It is worth noting that the United States itself admitted that it deliberately starved Cubans multiple times during these decades. The fact that the Trump administration recently labeled Cuban doctors, who belong to the top ten best doctors in the world, as "terrorist accomplices" is enough to reveal the true nature of the blockade.

The description and study of genocide are relatively recent, beginning in the 1940s. At the legal level, international institutions have yet to complete this work; many large-scale ethnic cleansing issues remain unresolved. Discrimination based on ethnicity, race, descent, class, and religion requires extensive research by jurists and legal scholars. Let alone, slavery, colonization, and population control methods are still insufficiently explained in political science.

The entrance sign to Auschwitz concentration camp reading 'Stop.'

In recent years, Russian legislation has recognized a series of actions by fascist Germany on Soviet territory as genocide. It is here that our legal theory begins to systematically describe the phenomenon of genocide from various aspects.

In 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin explained the reasons for the special military operation to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during a phone conversation:

"Everything that happened there, especially on occupied territories, is undoubtedly genocide and cannot be called anything else but the massacre of the people. They declared Russians a non-dominant ethnicity in our historical territories and passed relevant laws."

Scholz thought for a week and responded to Putin at the Munich conference:

"Claiming that genocide occurred in Donbas is absurd."

The cognitive difference between this German and this Russian hides the essence of differing attitudes toward historical experiences.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7506030856092303910/

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