Russia accuses US of seeking to spread 'cultural revolution' worldwide

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday accused the United States of seeking to spread what he called "a cultural revolution" around the world.

In an interview with political scientists broadcast on national television, Moscow's top diplomat said "they have colossal possibilities for it.''

"Hollywood is now also changing its rules so that everything reflects the diversity of modern society," he said, calling that "a form of censorship."

"I've seen Black people play in Shakespeare's comedies. Only I don't know when there will be a white Othello," Lavrov said.

"You see this is absurd. Political correctness taken to the point of absurdity will not end well."

Lavrov warned that anti-white racism might be building in the United States and said that political correctness "taken to the extreme" would have lamentable consequences.

Calling Russia a supporter of the worldwide trend, Lavrov said that "everyone wants to get rid of racism".

"We were pioneers of the movement promoting equal rights of people of any skin colour," he said.

But Lavrov stressed it was important "not to switch to the other extreme which we saw during the 'BLM' (Black Lives Matter) events and the aggression against white people, white US citizens."

Founded in the United States in 2013, Black Lives Matter is a movement that became a rallying cry after the killing by US police of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, last May.

The movement has led to a major debate about race, rights of people of colour and the toppling of statues of figures linked to slavery or colonisation in countries including the United States and the United Kingdom.