Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has compared recent Western sanctions to the methods of the Spanish Inquisition, a medieval Catholic Church institution used to combat heresy.
The dark page of history has clear parallels with the sanctions which have been imposed on Russia in the wake of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, Medvedev claimed in a Telegram post on Wednesday.
According to the former president, who is currently the deputy chair of the country’s Security Council, the only thing that differentiates the medieval inquisitors from modern “unfriendly” countries is that the West hasn’t yet suggested throwing Russian businessmen into a fire. Otherwise, he said, “all the inquisitorial methods are in place.”
Since the beginning of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, the West has imposed multiple sanctions on businesses, individuals, and state companies. It has also seized the Russian Central Bank’s foreign-exchange assets.