The Russian Embassy in the United States recommended that Russians do not travel to Charlottesville, Virginia, where local authorities introduced a state of emergency due to riots involving racist organizations. Earlier, the Mayor of Charlottesville, Mike Siner, assigned to President Donald Trump the responsibility for what happened on CNN. According to the politician, Trump's flirtation with nationalists during the election campaign aggravated the radical moods in the country. As a result, the small American city literally exploded because of the possible demolition of the monument to General Lee, who fought for the South in the civil war.
Many American politicians have criticized Trump for refraining from clear condemnation of the ultra-right and nationalists, confining himself to a statement about the need to stop "violence from many sides". The president was expected to receive anti-racist statements that were not followed, although what happened in Virginia Trump called the terrorist attack of white racists. Daughter and advisor to President Ivanka Trump condemned the ultra-right, writing on Twitter that "there is no place in American society for racism, the theory of the superiority of the white race and neo-Nazis". Also, the first lady of the United States wrote about the need to stop violence.
On a protest rally against the city authorities of Charlottesville to dismantle a monument to the Confederate General Robert Edward Lee on Saturday, August 12, gathered the racist group "Ku Klux Klan" and the right-wing extremist movement "Alternative Rights". The demonstration grew into riots involving the ultra-right and their opponents, resulting in the death of three people, and dozens suffered.
The first protests over the demolition of the monument began on August 11, when the radicals held a torchlight procession in the city with racist and anti-Semitic slogans. The opponents of the Rights gathered in response, a car crashed into a crowd of protesters at high speed, from which one person perished. The media reported that the 20-year-old detainee who was detained by the police turned out to be a supporter of nationalist views and was seriously involved in the study of Nazism. The police consider the incident a deliberate killing.
The symbolism of the Confederation has for several years been the cause for serious conflicts between supporters of racist groups and their opponents, reports RT. General Lee became famous during the war of the North and South and received an odious fame as a cruel slaveholder. Opponents of the demolition of the monument to General Lee are convinced that the decision to dismantle the monument violates the state law regulating military memorials. Demolition delayed for six months.