‘Double standards everywhere’

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s ‘TASS’ interview, in a nutshell

In a 30-minute interview with the Russian state news agency TASS, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed Western diplomats for their recent shows of support for imprisoned opposition politician Alexey Navalny (this comes after Moscow expelled three European diplomats on February 5). She then went on to accuse the West of having “double standards” when it comes to political prisoners and criticized the “policy of containment” allegedly directed towards Russia and China. Here’s what Maria Zakharova said, in a nutshell.

What the American embassy did ahead of the rallies was a political action. Information about the routes of the marches was accompanied by a political statement. This clearly motivated people to take part in the protests. These actions were coordinated, the Japanese were also drawn in by Western curators. And it culminated in diplomats participating in the rallies and arriving at the courthouse. You will never see this from us. They have double standards everywhere. In Spain, they say that they don’t have “political prisoners, but rather imprisoned politicians.” This isn’t cynicism and it’s not sarcasm, this is the latest strategy in Western propaganda. We have laws. But they block accounts and don’t explain anything to anyone.

Before, they told us that Navalny is a domestic story, but now we see that there are powerful foreign forces and finances behind him. Internet giants also support them — now the story’s out: like it or not, you’ll get push notifications urging you to watch their next video. The whole world has seen evidence of how external forces interfere in our affairs. This is a policy of containment, and they behave the same way with China. The West has realized that it no longer wants free competition. No matter how we might behave, a policy of sanctions dominates. The European Union is concerned about Navalny, but they also say that we need to fight fake information about the vaccine. But on August 13, Navalny recorded an video where he said that there is no Russian vaccine. So why don’t they judge him for this lie?

The summary above is a paraphrased version of Maria Zakharova’s interview with the Russian state news agency TASS. In other words, these aren’t verbatim quotes. You can watch the full interview in Russian here.

Summary by Grigory Levchenko

Translation by Eilish Hart

Cover photo: Sergey Bobylev / TASS