If they were given an opportunity to have slaves, all NATO would have returned to it, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, claimed in an interview with the Belarus 1 TV channel on December 19, 2023.

She allegedly supported her idea with the words of the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell. But she made a misinterpretation.

“Therefore, we say that the global majority does not accept dictatorship, which is based on this segregation, a sense of exclusivity, superiority by right, assigned to itself, colonialism.

If they were given the opportunity to have slaves, it seems to me that all of NATO would return to this. < ... > Josep Borrell let it slip, he told on behalf of the entire Western world: “The world is divided into two parts: a beautiful garden and a wild jungle, which should work in favor of a beautiful garden,” Maria Zakharova said.

In fact, Borrell did not say this. In his speech at the Opening European Diplomatic Academy in Bruges on October 13, 2022, he compared Europe to a garden and the rest of the world to a jungle, explaining the foreign policy idea of ​​the European Union.

“Europe is a garden. We have built a garden. Everything works. It is the best combination of political freedom, economic prosperity and social cohesion that the humankind has been able to build. <...> Most of the rest of the world is a jungle, and the jungle could invade the garden. The gardeners should take care of it, but they will not protect the garden by building walls,” Borell said.

The head of EU diplomacy also explained this statement in his blog: “My reference to “jungle” has no racist, cultural or geographical connotation. Indeed and unfortunately, the “jungle” is everywhere, including today in Ukraine.”