Today's collective West, clinging in every way possible to the dominance it is losing, still sees other countries as objects of colonial enslavement, said Sergey Naryshkin, director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service and chairman of the Russian Historical Society.
Among the West's past colonial acts were the transatlantic slave trade, forcible distribution of opium in China, and the elimination of entire ethnic groups and cultures, Naryshkin noted at a round table on colonialism on Monday.
"Today's Western leaders tend to claim that the position of their countries is allegedly due to the effectiveness of democratic institutions," Naryshkin said. "In fact, the well-being of the neo-colonial powers is built on blood, unfair and violent redistribution, distribution of funds to the detriment of all those who are not part of the so-called "golden billion."
Today, many of Russia's African and Asian partners are looking at Moscow with hope, supporting Russian initiatives designed to ensure a democratic world order based on international law and principles of multipolarity, he noted.
“At the same time, recalling the words of one of the Brussels officials, Josep Borrell, who called the European Union a flowering garden surrounded by jungle, I conclude that history, unfortunately, has taught our opponents nothing,” Naryshkin stated.
The West trying to keep its dominance is still thinking within the old paradigm of colonialism, called "the rules-based order," he concluded.