Russia keeps trolling the U.S. over the unrest in Ferguson

Russia is getting a lot of mileage out of the police crackdown on protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, seizing on the flashpoint issue to paint America as racially torn, its law enforcement draconian. And, of course, Russia is using the situation as an opportunity to tell Washington to mind its own business.

"We think U.S. authorities should pay closer attention to burning internal problems, including those related to ethnicity and race that still exist in the United States," Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian foreign ministry's human rights commissioner, told Russia 24. "Try to solve them via legal constitutional practices rather than unjustified and inadequate violence."

In a statement earlier Tuesday, Dolgov said the unrest in Ferguson was "clear evidence of the high degree of tensions in U.S. society, which remains split along racial lines." Russia's state-run TV networks have backed up those remarks, as they've been regularly hyping the protests as indicative of dire structural problems in America.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

It's not just Moscow trolling the U.S. either. Iran and Egypt, two other countries often faulted by American officials for alleged human rights abuses, have also urged the U.S. to address its own shortcomings before condemning theirs.