DURING Narendra Modi’s visit to Ukraine its President Zelensky asked India not to purchase fuel from Russia in violation of Western sanctions, that is, to fall in line with unilateral Western sanctions. 

Let us for a moment forget the identity of the person making this suggestion, the fact that he rules Ukraine with the help of the followers of Stepan Bandera, the notorious Nazi collaborator during the second world war; let us also forget the present context there: a war brought on by Nato’s insistence on extending itself eastwards right up to the Russian border in violation of the promise made by Bush to Gorbachev at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Let us also forget about India’s own “self-interest” in breaking the sanctions by purchasing Russian oil. Let us talk only of the ethics of “unilateral” sanctions.

Unilateral sanctions are those imposed only by some countries, namely the Western imperialist countries, against those that violate their diktat; they have to be distinguished from sanctions that have the approval of the United Nations, that is, the support of the committee of nations in general, and not just of the imperialist countries.