Scuffles erupted outside Kievsky train station, which is popular with traders from the Caucasus, as hundreds of baton-wielding riot police in dark helmets rounded up some young men and teenagers shouting racist slogans. Police also detained dozens of potential troublemakers from the Caucasus and confiscated knives and other weapons from them, officials said.
Resentment has been rising among Slavic Russians over the growing presence in Moscow and elsewhere of people from the southern region of Caucasus, the home of numerous ethnic groups, most of them Muslim. People from other parts of the former Soviet Union, including Central Asia and Azerbaijan, also face ethnic discrimination and are frequent victims of hate crimes.
The area around Kievsky station is feared to be a target of those who rioted outside the Kremlin, mainly soccer fans, who chanted “Russia for Russians!” during Saturday clashes that left dozens injured. Many soccer fans are linked with neo-Nazis and other radical extremist groups.
Russian media have been abuzz with rumors that some people from the Caucasus could try to take revenge for Saturday’s riots, even as community leaders described the allegations as a provocation and called for calm.
Small scuffles erupted just outside the station, but police intervened quickly to stop them. AP reporters could see police rounding some men from the Caucasus and others who looked like soccer fans near the Kievsky station, checking their IDs and looking for weapons. Some were let go after a quick check.
Police detained more than 150 suspected troublemakers and confiscated knives and non-lethal guns outside the station, spokesman Viktor Biryukov said.
A huge shopping mall just outside the station shut down hours ahead of schedule, and most stands at a nearby flower market, operated mostly by people from the Caucasus, were shut. Authorities towed cars early in the morning in anticipation of possible clashes.
Police also rounded up dozens in St. Petersburg where radical groups also planned a gathering on Wednesday.
The weekend’s violence raised fresh doubts about the government’s ability to control the rising tide of xenophobia, which threatens Russia’s integrity as a multiethnic state.
President Dmitry Medvedev urged police Monday not to hesitate to use force to put down riots, saying that leaving hate crimes unpunished would jeopardize stability.
The weekend rally began as a protest against the killing of a member of the Spartak Moscow team’s fan club, who was shot with rubber bullets in a fight with Caucasus natives at a bus stop earlier this month.
Spartak fans were further incensed with how Yegor Sviridov’s killing was handled by police. They claimed that while police arrested one suspect following the fight, they released others because they had powerful backers in the Caucasus.
Moscow police chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev acknowledged Monday that investigators had made a mistake and said three more suspects have now been arrested.
