FORMER colonies are “leaving the West behind,” Russia’s top diplomat told the United Nations on Wednesday.

During a press conference at the UN in New York, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said countries that told others how to live for half a millennium and believe they are “masters of the universe” ignore that the overwhelming majority of ex-colonies and are now independent and want to buttress their cultural and religious identity.

He said these ex-colonial states are “leaving the West behind,” pointing to the Brics economic bloc of developing economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.