MOSCOW: Russia said on Tuesday that the racial unrest in the US town of Ferguson highlighted “massive” domestic problems in America that stemmed from Washington's failure to respect human rights.

“The latest events in Ferguson are another and very worrying signal to the American authorities indicating that it is finally time for them to focus on massive domestic problems in the field of ensuring human rights,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The comments were Moscow's first on rioting that hit the central US city after a grand jury's decision not to indict a white police officer who shot dead an unarmed black teen during an altercation in August.

Relations between Moscow and Washington are at a post-Cold War low over a series of disputes, the major one of which is the future of ex-Soviet Ukraine.

Moscow has fired almost daily diplomatic barbs at Washington and its European allies since a difficult summit in Australia saw Russian President Vladimir Putin effectively ostracised by other world leaders two weeks ago.

Russia's statement said the Ferguson violence showed that the United States should focus more on its own shortcomings instead of “getting involved in the fruitless mentoring of other nations, and teaching them morals with the help of propaganda”.