On January 17, Maria Zakharova, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, stated that Russia has not moved away from Western countries.
“Russia did not distance itself from the West,” she said in an interview. “The West got wrapped up in a tangle of its own insults, follies, phobias, and it is in this kind of terrible hell of its own stupidities that it finds itself.”
Zakharova compared Western behavior to that of a curled-up hedgehog, which attempts to isolate itself from others but ends up isolating only itself. She noted that the West’s fear of Russia is not objective but more akin to a phobia.
The official representative also emphasized that such behavior differs from a natural defensive reaction and could pose a danger. “Unlike an ordinary hedgehog with instinctive reflexes, we are talking about a ‘rabid hedgehog’ whose actions can be dangerous,” she said.
