terça-feira, 14 de dezembro de 2010

Russia's counter-extremism services to find organizers of violent riots in Moscow

Russia's counter-extremism services will identify, track down and arrest the organizers of Saturday's riots in downtown Moscow, a senior source in the Russian security services said.
The violent riots, which took place on Manezh Square next to the Kremlin wall and saw the involvement of nationalist groups, was triggered by the death of a Spartak Moscow fan last week in a mass brawl between football fans and migrants from the North Caucasus.
"Work has been ongoing for several days," the source said adding that videos from surveillance cameras were being studied.
All Russian football fan movements have spoke out against the violence which broke out in central Moscow over the weekend, the president of the All-Russian Football Fan Association (VOB) said on Tuesday.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that the recent disturbances in Moscow must be classified as crimes and that ethnic discord puts the country's stability at risk.
A criminal case has been opened into the use of violence towards police authorities during the nationalist riot in downtown Moscow on Saturday, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.
Another demonstration in St. Petersburg involving some 1,000 people was sanctioned by city authorities but turned violent as police attempted to prevent its participants from blocking a road.
The Moscow rally was not sanctioned, which resulted in about 30 people, including at least eight riot police officers, being injured in the clashes. Dozens of protesters were detained and charged with administrative offenses and ten criminal cases were earlier initiated over the riots.
Seven people still remain in hospital. RIA Novosti