MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has described the situation with ongoing mass protests and riots in the United States as an "American tragedy," which has revealed all of Washington’s problems in the area of human rights.
"It looks like a curtain has been drawn back to reveal the entire picture the United States has been seeking to hide from people," she said in an interview with the Vecher (Evening) with Vladimir Solovyov program on the Rossiya-1 television channel. "They knew what was going on in the country, they knew about the contradictions and gaps but spared no effort to picture the situation in a different way. And continued to teach all others, imposing sanctions under the pretext of defending human rights."
This said, Moscow is not gloating over the situation in the United States, she stressed. "There is understanding that we are now witnessing an American tragedy of today," Zakharova noted. "But how can we speak about the United States’ leadership in this area after what we have seen? After police violence, public opinion manipulations via the mass media, exchange of accusations. There can be no questions to others from the United States for years after such turmoil."
Minnesota and a number of other states saw massive protests and rioting last week after a video showing the moment of brutal detention of African American George Floyd by a police patrol in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was suspected of using forged banknotes. The man died in a local hospital shortly afterwards. On May 26, four police were fired and one of them put under arrest and charged with unpremeditated murder.
National Guard was called to step in to help the police pacify the protesters. A curfew has been imposed in more than 40 cities.