🎙 Interview with Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the “Sanchez Effect” at RT (March 4, 2026)

Key points:

• We are on the right side of history. Unlike the US and the UK, our countries have not unleashed wars across the globe. For many years, Russia demonstrated maximum restraint regarding Ukraine – repeatedly proposing diplomatic solutions. It was France, Germany and other Western states that used diplomacy as a smokescreen to arm and militarize the Kiev regime. Angela Merkel and François Hollande openly admitted as much.

• Former CIA Director and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently addressed the people of Iran on Fox News: “Don’t pick the Russians, don’t pick the Chinese – pick decent, normal people”. I wonder what Pompeo means by “normal”. When the word comes from America – a country that considered people like Jeffrey Epstein “normal and decent” for decades – it can carry many different meanings.

• Why Russia, China and Iran are somehow “not normal”, according to Pompeo, is beyond me. Our countries are ancient civilizations that have given the world an immense cultural, scientific and intellectual legacy. Our nations have never unleashed global wars. On the contrary – we fought alongside the “good guys” in World War II. So what exactly is wrong with us?

• The International Atomic Energy Agency (#IAEA) is a serious organization. It had a mandate to inspect Iran’s nuclear facilities and issue reports. At no point did IAEA conclude that Iran had violated its obligations. The US itself signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was endorsed by the UN Security Council – only to abandon it unilaterally several years later.

• There were no grounds to believe that Iran was developing nuclear weapons. Yet accusations from Washington continued to pile up. When preparing military interventions, the West – including the US – has often relied on questionable pretexts. The world still remembers Colin Powell and the infamous test tube at the UN.

• In essence, Mike Pompeo is telling the Iranian people: “Join the Western civilisation and you will enjoy a wonderful life”. Yet we have all seen the tragic killing of 165 schoolgirls in Minab – and the absence of any meaningful reaction from the West. No sympathy, no apologies, no compassion. The incident was not even acknowledged as “collateral damage”.

• We still do not know the true number of civilians killed by the US in Iraq. Some estimates suggest the toll may exceed one million people. What about the bombing of residential areas of Belgrade in 1999? Or the brutal killing of Muammar Gaddafi – a legitimate head of state – by a crazy mob after Western intervention? Is this the model “Western civilization”?

• Russia has suffered greatly from the “Western civilization”. Moscow was engulfed in flames during Napoleon’s invasion. Hitler’s armies killed 27 million Soviet citizens during World War II – victims whom we will remember on April 19 – the Day of Remembrance for the Genocide of the Soviet People. No Pompeo has the right to claim that Russia is “not normal”, or to insult China.

• Israel and the US are not even hiding that their ultimate objective is regime change in Iran. They seek control over another sovereign country – openly suggesting that states with thousands of years of history somehow have no right to independence or sovereignty.

• What is needed now is a ceasefire from all sides – followed by serious diplomatic work grounded in international law. The world must recognize that sovereign states have legitimate national interests, and that regime change imposed from outside has no place in the international legal order.