Fearing more confrontation between mostly Muslim ethnic minorities and racist thugs, Hundreds of riot police outside the Kievsky station in central Moscow apprehend more than 1,000 people in Moscow and several other Russian cities Wednesday, after weekend rioting in the capital left many injured.
Hundreds of riot police apprehended mostly teenagers and young men who were raising their hands in Nazi salutes and shouting racist slogans.Some were lined up against buses and searched by police. Police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said Officers confiscated an arsenal of weapons, including knives,metal bars and traumatic guns.
Police arrested about 60 protesters in St. Petersburg, where radical groups also planned a gathering Wednesday. The Kievsky train station, where most of the detentions took place, is popular with street merchants from the Caucasus. The majority of those detained were Slavic Russians, although some ethnic minorities from the Caucasus were also taken into custody. Police declined immediate comment on when those detained would be released or whether they would face charges.
An expert on hate crimes predicted, however, that most of them would be released shortly. Resentment has been rising among Slavic Russians over the growing presence in Moscow and elsewhere of people from the southern Caucasus region, most of them Muslims. People from other parts of the former Soviet Union, including Central Asia,Azerbaijan and Armenia also face ethnic discrimination and are frequent victims of hate crimes.
On Monday, President Dmitry Medvedev urged police not to hesitate to use force to put down riots, saying that leaving hate crimes unpunished would jeopardize stability. According to Sova, an independent watchdog, Hate attacks in Russia peaked in 2008, when 115 people were killed and nearly 500 wounded.
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