Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign and Security Policy, apparently took offense to the comments of Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov: “Today’s West is steered by people like Josep Borrell who divide the world into a blooming ‘garden’ and ‘the jungle,’ where the latter clearly applies to most of humanity. I dare say, this racist worldview certainly prevents them from accepting the onset of multipolarity. The political and economic establishment in Europe and the United States reasonably fear that the transition to a multipolar system will entail serious geopolitical and economic losses, the final dismantling of globalization in its current form tailored according to Western templates. They are primarily spooked by the prospect of losing the opportunity to exploit the rest of the world, fueling their own fast-track economic growth at the expense of others.”
In the midst of an interview with El Pais, Borrell, speaking on the EU’s policy towards China and apparently unprovoked, lashed out at Russia. First he noted that it was impossible to compare Beijing and Moscow. Then he explained: “First of all, China is not Russia. China is a real geopolitical actor, while Russia is an economic dwarf, like a gas station, whose owner has an atomic bomb.”