Former Russian President and current Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev penned an exclusive feature on Dec. 25 for Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a newspaper published by the Russian Federation government, in which he argued, among other things, that there is no one in the West with whom Russia can talk. Medvedev argued that Western countries, by their actions, are undermining confidence throughout the world in themselves and their legal institutions, reported Tass, and their anti-Russian sanctions are a vivid example of that.
He recalled that Western politicians are seeking to seize Russian assets “without charge or trial,” or “simply to steal them.” The sanctions, in his words, are imposed on Russia and its allies “with the stroke of the pen” by Washington and its “European minions… It is the last signal to other states: it is impossible to deal with the Anglo-Saxon world. Like it is impossible to deal with thieves, fraudsters, cardsharps,” he emphasized. “A general credibility crisis to the so-called developed countries and their legal institutions is evident,” Medvedev noted. “It turns out that fundamental principles of legal relations, such as inviolability of private property and the supremacy of international law can easily be disposed of for the sake of political interests.”
Medvedev also argued that the U.S. is practicing a form of neo-colonialism that is even worse than Rudyard Kipling’s arrogant notion of the white man’s burden. He cited as an example the Black Sea grain deal, “which has literally made a fortune for American big companies that bought up agricultural lands in Ukraine… But the declared goal of preventing hunger in the poorest countries, where Russian and Ukrainian grain and fertilizers are exported, has not been achieved. They are receiving only 3 to 5% of such cargoes,” he reported.
“The situation in those countries, where the United States sought to establish allegedly liberal and democratic orders is still worse,” Medvedev wrote. “Everything always ends if not in bloody coups but in profound systemic crises and collapses in all spheres. Libya, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan—the most bitter victims of America’s ‘democratic missionary work.’”
