“Russia opened up to the West but was deceived”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Photo: TASS

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Finnish newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet on June 19 that when the Cold War ended, Russia was completely open to Western countries, but they deceived it.

“We have completely opened up to the West, but not because we were defeated. We did it ourselves, no one invaded us,” the diplomat said.

She noted that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the architect of perestroika, “just wanted to end the arms race.” “He wanted to end the Cold War. So we opened up and were deceived. They responded by putting up barbed wire between us,” Zakharova said.

According to Zakharova, all Russia wants from Europe is cooperation “to develop economic, trade and cultural ties”. “We want freedom of movement in each other’s countries, and we want to get rid of the need for visas. But they always refuse us,” she noted.

“It’s like what happened with the Russian submarines in Sweden: everyone thought they were there, but no one saw them. A month later, when all of Sweden was scared, the media wrote a little piece saying that what they thought was a submarine turned out to be something else,” Zakharova said.