Russia, Belarus Accuse US of Terror, Rights Abuses

Russia and Belarus have jointly released a striking report accusing the United States of serious human rights violations and supporting extremist groups around the world. Published in June 2024 by both countries’ foreign ministries, the document challenges America’s self-image as a global champion of democracy and freedom.

The report portrays the United States as a country that regularly dismisses international norms while criticizing others. According to Russian and Belarusian officials, Washington uses human rights rhetoric to justify economic sanctions and military interventions that often lead to civilian suffering. They allege that American intelligence agencies, in coordination with private military contractors, have covertly supported terrorist organizations to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives.

Domestically, the report describes systemic racism and deep economic inequality. It cites repeated incidents of police brutality and discrimination against minorities. The authors point to the ongoing homelessness crisis and claim that migrants and incarcerated people, including children, are subjected to inhumane treatment. Another area of concern is the safety of journalists and the alleged rise in political censorship, which the report says is stifling alternative viewpoints across media platforms.

One of the most serious accusations concerns U.S. law enforcement agencies allegedly targeting Russian citizens abroad. The report claims American authorities have detained Russians in third countries, sometimes transferring them to secret Central Intelligence Agency detention sites known as “black sites,” where torture allegedly occurs. Officials warn that no Russian citizen is safe from what they call the “gendarmerie” tactics of U.S. agencies.

The document also highlights the persistence of hate crimes, citing Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics that show more than 11,000 bias-related incidents in 2022. Of these, thousands targeted Jewish and Muslim communities. According to the report, dozens of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim extremist groups continue to operate openly in the United States.

 The authors further criticize the Biden administration for failing to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and for refusing to support United Nations resolutions condemning neo-Nazism, which Russia introduces annually.

So far, the U.S. government has not issued a formal response to these allegations. Washington has routinely dismissed similar reports as politically motivated attempts to deflect attention from Russia and Belarus’s records on human rights.