“Cases of racism are still not rare in the nation of exemplary democracy,” an anchor on Rossiya 24 said on Tuesday, as Ferguson again grabbed a prominent place in the evening news cycle…

The Russian government itself weighed in on Tuesday. In a long statement, Konstantin Dolgov, the Foreign Ministry’s special representative for human rights, baldly accused the United States of hypocrisy, and said Washington would do better to focus on its own problems rather than intervening in other countries “under the false pretext of defending democracy and human rights.”

“While urging other countries to guarantee the freedom of speech and not to suppress antigovernment protests, the United States authorities at home are not too soft with those actively expressing discontent over persistent inequalities, actual discrimination and the situation of ‘second class’ citizens,” Mr. Dolgov said.

He added, “American human rights activists are sounding the alarm.”