Putin condemns 'mayhem and rioting' at U.S. anti-racism protests

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday criticized anti-racism protests in the United States for sparking crowd violence, in his first comments on the issue.

"If this fight for natural rights, legal rights, turns into mayhem and rioting, I see nothing good for the country," Putin said in an interview with Rossiya-1 television to be broadcast in full on Sunday evening.

"We have never supported this," he said.

The Russian leader stressed he supported black Americans' struggle for equality, calling this "a long-standing problem of the United States."

"We always in the USSR and in modern Russia had a lot of sympathy for the struggle of Afro-Americans for their natural rights," he insisted.

But Putin added that "when - even after crimes are committed - this takes on elements of radical nationalism and extremism, nothing good will come of this."

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