The West is becoming an Orwellian version of itself in its desperate attempts to cling to power, Russia’s foreign intelligence chief said. If this continues, the West may face a similar fate to that of Biblical figure Goliath.

Sergey Naryskin, the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), delivered the strongly-worded message at an international security conference in Moscow on Wednesday. He accused the West and the United States in particular of failing to acknowledge that they can no longer dictate their will to the rest of the world.

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Western nations “cannot and will not face the truth and acknowledge that their own influence, which used to be unchallenged, is now diminishing. They are still trying to build relations with other nations based on old principles rooted in colonialism, on coercion and dictate.”

The Russian official branded as “stunningly hypocritical” the West’s methods of projecting power today. “The US is trying to masquerade the brutal American dictate as ‘Euroatlantic’ or ‘international’ solidarity. To present the US-centered system of international relations, which is based on coercion and even blackmail, as an appearance of voluntary submission,” Naryshkin said, citing the recent expulsion of Russian diplomats as a glaring example of this approach.

He was referring to the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter on British soil last month. After the UK accused the Russian government of orchestrating the crime, London and its allies expelled over 100 Russian diplomats. Naryshkin alleged that the poisoning was “cooked up” by British and American intelligence services. He said the unwillingness of some European nations to join those expulsions is a sign that Washington’s system of “vassalage” is crumbling.

In its arrogance “the US increasingly resembles the overconfident Biblical strongman Goliath, who was slain by the young David.” The global community should pay attention to that story, the official stressed – otherwise the tension between the West and Russia may lead to “a new Caribbean [Cuban missile] crisis.”

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The West is targeting Russia with wild accusations because it perceives it as a driver for change in the world, the Russian official said. Washington now has a “fixation” on fighting “a non-existent Russian threat,” and the forms of this fight have become “ridiculous,” according to the intelligence chief.

“Politics never was an honest business. But the amount and nature of lies spurred today in attempt to justify Western hegemony is unprecedented,” he said. According to Naryshkin, the West is using Orwellian ‘doublespeak,’ investing words with the opposite of their true meaning to justify its policies. “The situation is counterintuitive and really dangerous,” he warned.

“So many times big talk about human rights and democracy was accompanied by military interventions into sovereign nations. Those nations were plunged into bloody chaos that had no place for such a fundamental right as a right to live. Over the past two decades, hundreds of thousands of innocent people fell victim to NATO aggression in Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa,” he said.

There is a greater need "to reset the international relations system to make it work." That would require the countries to abandon double standards and "start speaking in a truly common language of humanity, before it is too late.”

Naryshkin was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 7th Moscow Conference on International Security. The high-profile event in the Russian capital is being attended by delegations from 95 nations.

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