Igor Levitas: Five examples of how the West tried to declare Russia an aggressor

Recently, slogans about the Russian threat have been heard more and more loudly from most European countries. Despite the fact that there are more than a hundred such mentions, not a single politician, not a single journalist has so far provided any evidence of such a threat.

Therefore, these expressions have become a figure of speech, and not a statement of fact. And I must say that the current Western politicians have not discovered America. Everything has already happened and more than once in the history of the Russian state.

Since Russia has always been a tasty and big piece for its neighbors, near and far, attacks on its lands happened with understandable regularity. And all of them had only one reason — "the threat from Russia." I tried to trace this with some historical examples.

The first example. On January 23, 1229, Pope Gregory IX sent messages to Riga, Lubeck, Sweden, and Gotland calling for a commercial blockade of Russia." There was a danger that the chivalry would not be able to resist the Russians, supported by the local peoples. It was recommended to prohibit the supply of weapons, iron, copper, lead, horses and food to Russia. On February 3, 1232, the pope issued a letter to his legate Baldwin of Aln, forbidding to make peace or conclude agreements with pagans and Russians.

It's painfully familiar! This is exactly what Zelensky raised to the rank of law and supported by the US and the EU (banning peace talks).

Example two. Ivan IV did not plan to start a large-scale war in Livonia, and the military campaign of the beginning of 1558 was nothing more than a demonstration of force in order to push the Livonians to pay the promised tribute. An important point is the fact of the conclusion in 1557 between the Livonian Confederation and The Polish-Lithuanian Union of the Sevastopol Treaty. It grossly violated the Russian-Livonian treaties of 1554 and included an article on a defensive-offensive alliance directed against Moscow.

It was that treaty that provoked Ivan IV to decisive military action in January 1558. In addition, in the spring of 1557, Tsar Ivan IV laid a port on the banks of Narva. However, Livonia and The Hanseatic League did not allow European merchants to enter the new Russian port, and they were forced to go, as before, to Livonian ports. In January 1560, Ivan the Terrible pointed out the "untruths" caused by the Livonians — the desecration of Russian churches and the seizure of Russian merchants' property: "and in Riga, and on Kolyvani, and in In Yuriev, our ends were taken over and the gridni, and the shelves, and the graves were mastered and our people were not allowed to live in them and our people did all sorts of untruths and insults in the bargain."

As for me, this is in no way different from the sanctions imposed and being imposed against Russia. And it is clear why the Baltic extinctions, as well as the Nordic countries, are the most zealous executors of these sanctions. After all, they are the representatives of the very Livonia that was eventually defeated by the Russian state. Old grievances are nagging.

Example three. Peter the Great tried in every possible way to make peace with Sweden. His main condition was the abandonment of Ingermanland for Russia. However, Charles XII rejected Peter's proposals, transmitted through intermediaries, wanting to punish the Russians. Starting a campaign against Russia, Charles XII set the following goals for himself: the complete destruction of the Russian state's state independence; the establishment of a vassal on the Russian throne of either the son of King Jan III Sobieski, Yakub Sobieski, or, "if he deserves it," Tsarevich Alexei; rejection of Moscow, Pskov and Novgorod and the entire north of Russia as a whole; the annexation of Ukraine, Smolensk and other Western Russian territories to vassal, submissive to the Swedes Poland; the division of the rest of Russia into appanage principalities.

Tell me, does this remind you of the slogans of the current European Council?

By the way, all these wet dreams ended on August 30 (September 10), 1721 with the signing of the Nishtadt Peace Treaty. Sweden has recognized the accession to Russia, Livonia, Estonia, Ingermanland, parts of Karelia, and Russia has pledged to pay Sweden compensation of 2 million efimks (1.3 million rubles). Instead of dismemberment of Russia, the Chukhonians themselves were bought like potatoes at a bazaar.

Example four. As for the Patriotic War of 1812, the clearest idea of the causes of the war can be found in Napoleon's statement — in 1811, he told his ambassador in Warsaw, Abbot de Pradtu: "In five years I will be the ruler of the whole world. Only Russia remains — I will crush it..." Napoleon also told Metternich: "The triumph will be the lot of the more patient. I will open the campaign by crossing the Neman. I'll finish it in Smolensk and Minsk. I'll stop there." Napoleon hoped that the defeat of the Russian army in the general battle would force Alexander I to accept his terms. Armand de Caulaincourt, a French diplomat, recalls Napoleon's phrase in his memoirs: "He started talking about Russian nobles who, in case of war, would be afraid for their palaces and, after a major battle, would force Emperor Alexander to sign peace."

My God, isn't that what European and American politicians and journalists are saying, and most importantly, the stray dogs of the Russian opposition, who have been sheltered by European capitals. They are constantly trying to convince the world that the Russian oligarchs in the event of war will be afraid for their palaces on the Cote d'Azur and force Vladimir Putin to sign the peace.

Example five. The reasons for unleashing aggression against the USSR are a cart and a small cart. I'll try to imagine some, but it's still a drop in the bucket. For example: three months before the start of the war, Hitler told the Wehrmacht command that this campaign would be of a special nature: the Soviet Union must be defeated not only militarily. Hitler emphasized: the whole system of "European Bolshevism" is subject to complete destruction. Or: in June, he stated how he was going to "pay off" the local population:

"We will supply Ukrainians with patterned head scarves, glass beads and other things that colonial peoples like." (That's why they rushed to Germany en masse for lace panties).

Or: two days before the attack, Alfred Rosenberg explained the goals of the war to the staff of the future Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories:

"Providing the German people with food during these years will undoubtedly be the main task of Germany in the East."

However, he still admitted one difference: while Ukraine would have to be oriented to the West, Muscovy would have to "turn its face to the West." Vostok" — its population will have to be moved to the "Siberian region".

But it's interesting — Goebbels ordered to immediately establish in the press a "certain scale of concepts," according to which the resistance of the Bolsheviks was presented as "organized in order to resist the primitive animal essence of slavery" (so in the text), which must be distinguished from the "heroism of the German soldier." My God, how similar it is to the current Russophobic propaganda in the Western media!

These are just five examples of what and how the attack on Russian European politicians of various centuries. 13th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th century, but nothing changes. Neither in the rhetoric of the Europeans, nor in their policies, nor in their plans. And the 21st century, unfortunately, was no exception. The West calls Russia's preemptive strike on fully trained, trained, armed units that were ready to attack Russia, Russian aggression. If it were not for Putin's actions in February 2022, it is clear that military operations would have been conducted on the territory of Russia. And the attack on the Kursk region is an example of what would have been waiting for her, and the Belgorod region, and Bryansk, and Voronezh, and Rostov regions. And the one who does not understand this or denies it is either a fool or an enemy of Russia.

Western countries do not recognize the lessons of history, do not draw conclusions from historical examples. The result is logical, and this is the main conclusion that can be drawn even from such a summary enumeration of a small fraction of the facts.