Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday compared the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in the U.S. to pro-democracy protests in Russia led by opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“America just recently had very severe events, well-known events, after the killing of an African American. And the entire movement developed known as Black Lives Matter. I’m not going to comment on that, but here’s what I do want to say: What we saw was disorder, destruction, violations of the law, etc.,” Putin said at a press conference following his meeting with President Biden.

“We feel sympathy for the United States of America but we don’t want that to happen on our territory. We’re doing our utmost in order to not allow it to happen,” he added, referring to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year, which ignited a movement against police brutality and racism.

Putin said that foreign agents don’t need to stop operating, unless they are extremist in nature. He said that the organization led by the imprisoned Navalny has publicly called for mass disorder and breaking the law.

Putin was further pressed on the jailing and killing of his critics and asked if it sends a message that he doesn’t want a fair political fight.

He then equated his treatment of opposition leaders to the arrests of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol during the deadly attack on Jan. 6. Putin said that some rioters were “shot on the spot.”

“Many people are facing the same things that we do,” Putin said.