Putin disassociates himself from the riots in Europe and Trump points to immigration

BarcelonaRussian President Vladimir Putin described this Sunday as an "obvious exaggeration" the accusations blaming Moscow for fueling the protests that are shaking several European cities. In an interview with the Russian public television channel VGTRK, he asserted that European leaders are looking for external culprits in order to avoid assuming their responsibilities regarding social unrest. US President Donald Trump has also spoken out about the protests in Europe, but linked them to immigration, following several weeks of student mobilizations in France and the riots on Saturday in the center of Barcelona.

"I was surprised that the first reaction was not anti-Russian, but anti-American," declared Putin, who recalled that initially the French government blamed the Trump administration for the protests due to its support for European right-wing parties and movements. The Russian president considered it "strange and completely unexpected" that European leaders would attack "their main ally and military protector on the other side of the ocean." "But they quickly regained their senses and returned to their traditional accusations against the Russian Federation," he quipped.

"As everyone knows, Russia has always been accused of all mortal sins. But now I am ready to respond," he stated. According to the Russian president, the claim that Moscow is provoking mass demonstrations in major European cities is an "exaggeration" that is evident even to European citizens. The head of the Kremlin interpreted these accusations as a sign of "the weakness and inability of some leaders of European countries to take responsibility for what is happening." "This is bad, because it means they are not analyzing the events, they are not looking for the causes of what is happening, but simply shifting the blame onto someone else: first to the United States and now to Russia," he added. Specifically, Putin recalled that Europe continues to buy Russian liquefied gas and highlighted its public debt and austerity policies.

The statements come amid student protests that have been taking place for weeks in France. The French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, had denounced on October 21, at a conference organized by the OECD, that the mobilizations had been exploited to spread "hostile narratives" originating from Russia, China, Iran, and the MAGA movement, a supporter of Trump, without providing evidence.

Trump talks about Ceuta again

For his part, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has taken advantage of the European unrest to defend his hardline policy against immigration and to ask for the vote for the Republicans in the legislative elections of November 3rd. In an interview with the Fox News network, Trump has returned to refer to the migration crisis in Ceuta from last summer. "Hundreds of thousands of people arrived in Spain a month ago. I said: 'Oh, this will be a problem'. Look at what they are doing to Europe, look at Spain", insisted Trump, who has linked the arrivals of migrants with the riots of the last few days in France and other European countries. "The people who are causing the problems are people who hate Spain, hate France and hate Italy", he asserted, without providing evidence linking the participants of the protests with immigration.

The leader also referred to a conversation that he claims to have had with the French President, Emmanuel Macron: "I told him: 'You are destroying France. You are letting in people who hate your country'". Trump has contrasted the European situation with that of the United States, where he claims that his immigration policy has allowed for the reduction of crime to the lowest levels of the last century.