{"id":59893,"date":"2020-06-15T12:41:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T12:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=59893"},"modified":"2020-06-15T12:41:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T12:41:00","slug":"putin-condemns-mayhem-and-rioting-at-us-anti-racism-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=59893","title":{"rendered":"Putin condemns ‘mayhem and rioting’ at US anti-racism protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"International Desk: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday criticised anti-racism protests in the United States for sparking crowd violence, in his first comments on the issue.<\/p>\n

“If this fight for natural rights, legal rights, turns into mayhem and rioting, I see nothing good for the country,” Putin said in an interview with Rossiya-1 television to be broadcast in full Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

“We have never supported this,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Russian leader stressed he supported black Americans' struggle for equality, calling this “a long-standing problem of the United States”.<\/p>\n

“We always in the USSR and in modern Russia had a lot of sympathy for the struggle of Afro-Americans for their natural rights,” he insisted.<\/p>\n

But Putin added that “when — even after crimes are committed — this takes on elements of radical nationalism and extremism, nothing good will come of this.”<\/p>\n

Putin also described the protests as a sign of “deep-seated internal crises” in the United States, linking the unrest to the coronavirus pandemic, which he said “has shone a spotlight on general problems”.<\/p>\n

He said he nevertheless expected that the “fundamental basis of American democracy will allow the country to escape this series of crisis events”.<\/p>\n

Asked about reactions to the US protests including demonstrations in Europe and statues being pulled down, Putin said “this is undoubtedly a destructive phenomenon”.<\/p>\n

He suggested protesters wanted only Afro-American doctors to treat Afro-Americans and said this would be impossible in “multi-ethnic Russia”.<\/p>\n

The interview was billed as Putin's first since the start of the pandemic though it is not clear when it was recorded.<\/p>\n

The president made his first public appearance at an open-air event in Moscow on Friday after weeks of lockdown at his country residence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International Desk: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday criticised anti-racism protests in the United States for sparking crowd violence, in his first comments on the issue. “If this fight for natural rights, legal rights, turns into mayhem and rioting, I see nothing good for the country,” Putin said in an interview with Rossiya-1 television to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":59894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n