Putin accuses West of demanding ‘hegemon’s rent’ from humanity
Western elites led by the US are exacting tribute from all of humanity and will do anything to protect their privileged position, Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed.
“The West will cross every line to preserve this neocolonial system, which allows it to parasitize the world, essentially rob it through the power of the dollar and technological supremacy, to collect tribute from humanity, extract the main source of its unearned wealth – hegemon’s rent,” the Russian president said in a speech on Friday.
Preserving this arrangement is the true motive that underlies the policies of the Western elites, and is why their governments try to strip other nations of their sovereignty, according to Putin.
This is where their aggression towards independent nations, traditional values, and original cultures stems from.
Leaders of nations targeted by the West face the choice of voluntarily submitting to its dictates, being bribed into doing the same, or having destruction and misery brought upon their homelands by the US and its allies, Putin said. “Greed and the intention to preserve unlimited power are the true causes of the hybrid war which the collective West is waging against Russia.”
They don’t wish freedom for us. They want us to be a colony. They don’t want cooperation of equals, but pillaging. They want to see us not as a free society, but a crowd of soulless slaves.
Putin delivered the speech in Moscow before signing treaties with the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions on their accession to the Russian Federation. The documents must be ratified by parliament before coming into force.
The move was condemned by Kiev, which considers it to be an illegal annexation of its territory. Moscow said the accession was legitimized by referendums held in the former Ukrainian regions, in which people overwhelmingly voted in favor of splitting from Kiev and seeking protection from Russia against attacks by Kiev’s forces.
