Kremlin hits back at claims of hand in US rioting

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday dismissed accusations that Russia should be held responsible for the mass protests and riots in the United States.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said Moscow was not gloating over the situation in the US, but said the ongoing riots were an "American tragedy", which has revealed all of Washington's problems in the area of human rights.

Minnesota and a number of other states have seen massive protests and rioting related to the death of George Floyd at the hands of police.

After nights of nationwide riots, a war of words has broken out over who's responsible for the worst of the looting and the destruction.

Russian TV network, or RT, reported that former US national security adviser Susan Rice said in a statement that Russia should take responsibility for the anarchy on the US streets.

Rice claimed in a live broadcast with the CNN network that the protests and domestic strife "is right out of the Russian playbook".

According to RT, Rice is just one of several liberal figures that talk about Russian meddling in the streets of Minneapolis, and former New Orleans mayor Marc Morial also suggested in a CNN interview that Russian agents were stoking the riots.

'Curtain been drawn back'

"It looks like a curtain has been drawn back to reveal the entire picture that the US has been seeking to hide from people," Zakharova said.

"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," she said.

The spokesperson said the world is witnessing an American tragedy today, but no one is gloating over the situation.

"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," Zakharova said.

Global Policy Institute researcher George Szamuely said: "I was wondering how long it would take the mainstream media to find a Russian angle.

"Of course, there's not the slightest evidence for this, but that's to be expected."