U.S Coronavirus Crisis and Protest Reflect “Deep Domestic Crises”, Says Putin
Economic News: Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, says there is a connection between how the U.S. is handling the coronavirus crisis, the widespread civil unrest, and anti-racism protests in the country.
According to Putin, the coronavirus pandemic has “shone a spotlight” on issues affecting the country.
He added that protests against police brutality and racial inequality resulted from an internal crisis.
However, Putin criticized the destruction and looting seen during protests.
Putin said what happened in the U.S. was a manifestation of a deep domestic crisis. This was according to Tass news agency. They covered an interview with the president on the state-run T.V. channel, Rossiya-1 TV, on Sunday.
Putin linked the protests following the death of George Floyd to how the U.S. is handling the coronavirus crisis. George Floyd was an unarmed Blackman who was murdered while in police custody in Minneapolis, which occurred in May.
The U.S. is the worst-hit country globally, according to John Hopkins University. The U.S. has reported over 2 million Covid-19 cases and close to 116,000 deaths.
Putin says these numbers indicate general internal problems. He added that if the fight for natural and legal rights turned into mayhem and rioting, he saw nothing good for the country.
“We always in the U.S.S.R. and modern Russia had a lot of sympathy for the struggle of African-Americans for their natural rights,” he added.
However, he said nothing good would come out of crimes, radical nationalism, and extremism.
Russia’s own record
The comments came despite Russia often refusing to comment on foreign powers’ domestic affairs, saying it doesn’t want to interfere.
Last week, his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told CNBC that Russia, with its own poor human rights record, was concerned about human rights abuses globally, including the U.S.
Russia is the third worst-hit country by coronavirus, having passed the 500,000 positive cases mark last week.
Russia has recorded over 528,000 positive Covid-19 cases and close to 7,000 deaths.
The low death toll has prompted concerns over its accuracy, but Russia maintains that it does not conceal any fatalities.
On Sunday, during the interview with Rossiya-1, Putin contrasted the virus situation in Russia and the U.S. while “we are exiting the coronavirus situation steadily with minimal losses, God willing, in the States, it isn’t happening that way.”