Hundreds arrested in Moscow anti-migrant riots
Riot police escort a man detained during mass rioting in Moscow. (Vasily Maximov, AFP/Getty Images)
MOSCOW — Over 20 people including 6 policemen were injured in ethnic riots in a southern Moscow suburb that began Sunday and continued overnight, authorities said. Thousands of young people took to the streets in the southern Moscow suburb of Biryulyovo Sunday demanding the eviction of migrant workers from the Northern Caucuses and outside Russia. The protests came in the wake of the killing last week of a 25-year-old local resident, Yegor Shcherbakov, reportedly by an attacker with an appearance of Caucasus or Central Asian origin. The angery Moscow mob upturned cars, broke windows in street kiosks and attempted to break into a local market run by migrants. The protesters chanted "Russia for Russians, Moscow for Muscovites" and threw stones at riot police who arrived on the scene.
Shcherbakov was stabbed with a knife Thursday and died a short time later near his home after reportedly trying to protect his girlfriend from an attacker of "non-Russian" appearance. “This non-Russian man took out a knife and stabbed him in the heart,” Shcherbakov's girlfriend, whose name was not disclosed, said in an interview on NTV, a television network. "We called the ambulance, but we couldn't save him, and he died on my knees." The alleged attacker's face was caught by a camera over the entrance of Scherbakov's residential house. Police were conducting an investigation and searching for the attacker. Early Monday police raided a vegetable market protesters had tried to storm overnight, detaining about 1,200 workers and traders, RIA Novosti reported.
Riot police escort a man detained during mass rioting in Moscow. (Vasily Maximov, AFP/Getty Images)
MOSCOW — Over 20 people including 6 policemen were injured in ethnic riots in a southern Moscow suburb that began Sunday and continued overnight, authorities said. Thousands of young people took to the streets in the southern Moscow suburb of Biryulyovo Sunday demanding the eviction of migrant workers from the Northern Caucuses and outside Russia. The protests came in the wake of the killing last week of a 25-year-old local resident, Yegor Shcherbakov, reportedly by an attacker with an appearance of Caucasus or Central Asian origin. The angery Moscow mob upturned cars, broke windows in street kiosks and attempted to break into a local market run by migrants. The protesters chanted "Russia for Russians, Moscow for Muscovites" and threw stones at riot police who arrived on the scene.
Shcherbakov was stabbed with a knife Thursday and died a short time later near his home after reportedly trying to protect his girlfriend from an attacker of "non-Russian" appearance. “This non-Russian man took out a knife and stabbed him in the heart,” Shcherbakov's girlfriend, whose name was not disclosed, said in an interview on NTV, a television network. "We called the ambulance, but we couldn't save him, and he died on my knees." The alleged attacker's face was caught by a camera over the entrance of Scherbakov's residential house. Police were conducting an investigation and searching for the attacker. Early Monday police raided a vegetable market protesters had tried to storm overnight, detaining about 1,200 workers and traders, RIA Novosti reported.
Northern Caucuses is usually code for Chechen. Russians have a very dim view of Chechen migrants ever since Beslan.
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