In the statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova delivered a scathing assessment of the human rights situation in the United States under President Joe Biden.
Zakharova described the ongoing crackdown against Trump loyalists in the United States:
“The FBI has reportedly opened more than 400 criminal cases and applied for more than 500 search warrants and subpoenas for suspects; it has also brought charges against and detained around 200 people. Only several dozen defendants have been released on bail or placed under house arrest. The others are being subjected to harsh pressure, with members of their family and social circle being coerced into giving a ‘convenient’ testimony. Moreover, people who have not even been officially charged are losing their jobs; they are being banned from social media and publicly ostracised.”
She also questioned the “objectivity of the law enforcement agencies” involved in this campaign, noting that they were acting under orders and “in line with the narrative of the current administration who declared the events of January 6, 2021 a riot and everybody who was near the US Congress on that day all but plunderers.”
She went on to correctly note that far from being violent rioters, most of the attendees of the January 6 rally were peaceful protesters.
“In fact, the majority of those people were ordinary citizens concerned about the situation in their own country,” she said. “These were 74 million voters who voted for their president and defended their views.”
She warned that the administration’s crackdown would not solve the widespread discontent towards Biden’s rule:
Russia has never been the problem. CHINA is.