Putin uses Jacob Blake shooting to call U.S. and European Union hypocrites

Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the U.S. and Europe on Thursday for condemning Belarusian police brutality without doing the same on police violence in their own countries.

When asked about police brutality in Belarus during an interview with state-owned television channel Russia-1, Putin referenced the Yellow Jackets movement in France and the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin.

After the interviewer called the first two days of protests in Belarus “uncomfortable,” Putin said: “Was it comfortable when in some European countries people were dying almost every day? And was it comfortable when an unarmed person is shot in the back, despite the fact that he also has three children in his car?”

The example of Blake, an unarmed black man who was left paralyzed after being shot seven times in the back by a police officer, was used by Putin to suggest that the EU and the U.S. are not genuinely concerned about the police violence in Belarus.

“Does anyone who now blames Belarus and the Belarusian leadership — President Lukashenko — for something, do they condemn these actions? Why such selectivity?” Putin asked.

“This suggests that the point is not about what is happening in Belarus,” Putin added. “They want to influence these processes and achieve some decisions that correspond, as these people [U.S. and EU leaders] think, to their political interests.”

The U.S and the EU have both called the Belarusian presidential election, which Alexander Lukashenko claims to have won, neither free nor fair. They have also strongly condemned Belarusian authorities for using violence against peaceful protestors.

In the same interview, Putin said, “In my opinion, we behaved much more restrained and neutral in relation to the events in Belarus than many other countries, both Europeans and Americans.”