Rioters smashed shop windows, stormed a warehouse and clashed with
police in a Moscow neighborhood on Sunday in the biggest outbreak of
anti-migrant unrest in the Russian capital in three years.
Demonstrators, some chanting racist slogans, vandalized shops and other sites known for employing migrant workers in the southern Biryulyovo area after the killing of a young ethnic Russian widely blamed on a man from the Caucasus.
Several
hundred residents had protested peacefully, demanding justice over the
killing, until a group of young men began smashing windows in a shopping
center and briefly set it on fire. A video posted on Youtube showed
them chanting "White Power!" as they forced their way in.
When
police in riot gear tried to make arrests, protesters threw glass
bottles at them and the police fought back with batons. Video footage
from the scene showed overturned cars and smashed fruit stalls.
Some
in the crowd, which grew to number several thousand, set off from the
shopping center and stormed into a vegetable warehouse employing
migrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Moscow police said several officers were wounded in the riots, around 380 people were detained and a criminal case was opened.
Extra police were sent in but sporadic clashes and arrests continued into the night.
Many Muscovites chafe at an influx of migrant laborers to the capital over the past decade.
The
Kremlin has watched with alarm at frequent outbreaks of violence in
Russian cities between members of the Slavic majority and people with
roots in the mostly Muslim North Caucasus, ex-Soviet South Caucasus
states and Central Asia.
PERSISTENT TENSION
Some
Biryulyovo residents criticized the police for the latest arrests,
drawing a contrast with what they said was too much leniency in the
treatment of migrants engaged in illegal activity.
"It's
simply impossible to live here. There are fights all the time. The
people working in this warehouse are no good - I'm sure there are
criminals hiding among them," said local resident Alexander, 23.
The
head of President Vladimir Putin's human rights council criticized law
enforcement bodies for not doing enough to prevent the attacks on
businesses employing migrants.
"On
the one hand, I completely understand resentment among Muscovites who
see people getting killed on our streets and law enforcement officials
doing nothing," Mikhail Fedotov told the broadcaster Dozhd. "But that in
no way justifies ... this pogrom."
The
latest protest in Biryulyovo began with demands for more police action
over the killing of Yegor Shcherbakov, 25, who authorities said was
fatally stabbed while walking home with his girlfriend on Thursday
night.
Russia's top investigative
agency said it was looking into the killing. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, a
close Putin ally, called for a thorough investigation and said those
behind riots must also be held responsible for their actions.
The
rioting in Biryulyovo was the worth outbreak of unrest over a racially
charged incident in Moscow since December 2010, when several thousand
youths rioted just outside the Kremlin.
The
youths clashed with police and attacked passersby who they took for
non-Russians after the killing of an ethnic Russian soccer fan was
blamed on a man from the North Caucasus.
Putin has frequently warned of the dangers of ethnic and religious violence in the diverse nation.
This month he said Russia
needed migrant laborers in industries such as construction. But in a
nod to anti-migrant sentiment, he suggested their numbers could be
restricted in some other sectors including trade.
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