Zakharova: Western countries are "pirates of the 21st century"
On June 3 local time, during the 2026 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated that Western countries are turning themselves into "pirates of the 21st century" due to their practice of seizing ships in international waters.
"Just a few years ago, these very Western nations were loudly advocating for the need to combat piracy—issuing various declarations, drafting numerous statements, and insisting on passing resolutions. Now, they have become precisely those '21st-century pirates' we used to see only on television," she said in an interview with Nikolai Ivanov from *Izvestia*.
Zakharova drew a parallel with the James Bond film series, where Bond is granted a "license to kill." The diplomat emphasized that the West is now issuing such licenses—not merely undermining international maritime law, but actually paving the way for international terrorism.
"They are issuing licenses to take lives. These licenses are being issued by institutions like the 'collective West' based in Brussels. Even more troubling, they are constructing an ideological foundation by concealing the truth and pressuring their own media. They are presenting this as the so-called 'new normal' to the international community," she pointed out.
Zakharova noted that such tactics are nothing new—they merely reenact historical precedents. However, what's different today is that they are leveraging modern information and technological tools to advance this agenda.
"The core issue is that this so-called 'collective Western minority' is forcibly imposing a mindset upon the international community—that the world is divided not just into 'jungles' and 'beautiful gardens,' but that under this division, human beings can be eliminated at will without trial. And in their view, this should provoke no emotional response—neither compassion nor sympathy," she concluded. #Piracy #InternationalOrder
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1866979012043784/
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