Unfortunately, the Germans had placed so much emphasis on taking the city that their flanks north and south of the city were being held only by unreliable non-German troops, and even these were stretched too thin to cover the area they were supposed to be defending. Hitler was warned; his reaction was to relieve the general who had warned him and replace him with someone else. The Soviets, however, had no problem recognizing the weakness and, in their counterattack, struck outside of the city directly at those non-German units, smashing through those units to encircle and surround the Germans in Stalingrad. It was only AFTER this that the Volga froze, allowing the Soviets to relieve the beleaguered Soviet forces within the city itself.

"Robbins’s claim fails because the Hobbs Act does not apply when the National Government is the intended beneficiary of the allegedly extortionate acts."