MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/. Russia has never been a "militaristic" country, unlike European states, the Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook in response to the UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s comparing Russia with Sparta.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Johnson called Athens "the analogue of the United States and the West," and Russia - like "closed, nasty, militaristic and antidemocratic" Sparta, adding though the countries need to cooperate.

"The comparison is incorrect," Zakharova wrote. "Not even because Russia has never been a "militaristic" country, unlike European states. The essence of contradictions between Athens and Sparta was the oligarchy as the basic structure of the latter. I do not think it is possible to imagine anything more oligarchic than the UK, <…> thus, essentially, Boris Johnson is not right, of course."

At the same time, Zakharova agreed with another statement by the UK foreign secretary. "The wars between Athens and Sparta weakened classical Greece, of what the Persians and Macedonians made use. Today’s feuds, launched and developed by the West, including on the European continent, undoubtedly, weaken the Western civilization and expose it to the threats like, for example, IS (the Islamic State terrorist organization, outlawed in Russia - TASS)."

"The game of frivolous historic comparisons, similar to those by the Foreign Office’s head, could take him even further, and on some day, he, so creative and extraordinary, will see in his country, for example, the Lesbos Island."

TASS wrote earlier that the UK’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson plans to visit Moscow the week of December 18 to discuss with the Russian side, among other questions, the situation in Syria.