Moscow accuses Borrell of feeling “envy and helplessness” for reducing Russia to “a gas station whose owner has an atomic bomb”

The comparison of Russia with “a gas station whose owner has an atomic bomb” made by the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, in an interview with EL PAÍS has revived the Kremlin’s indignation with the high representative for Foreign Affairs and Politics of Security. “He says all this out of envy and impotence,” The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry responded this SaturdayMaría Zajárova, after reeling off three criticisms against Europe that included from the trans collective to a supposed economic bankruptcy of the bloc and its resignation from the nuclear race.

“First of all, people who cannot determine if they are men or women would do better to remain silent until the final self-identification,” Zajárova replied before stating that the European Union “seems bankrupt, like it went bankrupt and has stopped refueling with high-quality fuel within their means”. “Our fuel is with us and we also sell it,” added the spokeswoman, referring to one of the toughest community sanctions, the cap on the price of Russian oil that has caused a collapse in its income and the devaluation of the ruble.

“Only one country in the European Union has nuclear weapons,” was Zajárova’s third point, referring to France. “The rest never got them. Since there is nothing to be proud of, they come out with that anger, ”she pointed out about the community bloc, of which most of the countries are members of NATO and have the nuclear support of the US and the United Kingdom.

It is not the first time that Moscow has reacted angrily to Borrell’s statements. The official magazine of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mezhdunaródnaya Dzhizn (International Affairs) published this Saturday an interview granted by his minister, Sergei Lavrov, in which he again blamed the Spanish diplomat for the distinction of the world that he made in October 2022, where the Spaniard differentiated between the “garden” in which the West lives and the supposed “jungle” that surrounds it. That sparked a wave of criticism on several continents.

“At the helm of the West there are people like Josep Borrell who divide the world into their flower garden and the jungle where they believe most of humanity lives,” Lavrov said.

Another statement by Borrell that the Kremlin frequently brings up was made by the Spaniard in the spring of 2022, at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, when he assured that “this war will be won on the battlefield.”

The metaphor used by the European diplomat in the interview given to this newspaper has also caused a wave of indignation among the most bellicose Russian sector and its propaganda. “It seems that the Russian special services managed to recruit this giant of diplomacy. Even Yuri Levitan — a voice on Soviet radio during World War II — did not motivate our army in such an incendiary way!”, said, for example, the well-known war blogger Alexander Kotz.

However, the former deputy and ex-soldier Víktor Alksnis, he agreed with Borrell. “As much as it pains me to admit it, this sworn enemy of Russia is right in many ways. We dwarfed the world’s former second superpower, not only militarily, but also economically, with our own hands. And we continue to do so,” said the politician on his Telegram channel.

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