Email

Migrants arrested in Moscow raids

The violence was blamed on extremists, the BBC's Steve Rosenberg reports

More than 1,200 people have been arrested in Russia in raids a day after major riots in southern Moscow.

The violence was blamed on extremists, the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg reports

The “pre-emptive raid” targeted migrants, Russian news agencies said.

The protests were sparked by the death of a young ethnic Russian allegedly stabbed to death on Thursday by a Muslim migrant from the North Caucasus.

Demonstrators stormed a shopping centre, smashing windows, and then overran a wholesale vegetable market searching for migrant workers.

Ethnic Russian Yegor Shcherbakov, 25, was killed on Thursday in front of his girlfriend.

Police have released a security camera photo of the suspect, but have not identified him.

Media said the image suggested the man was of “non-Slavic appearance”, leading nationalists to conclude the killer was a Muslim migrant from the Russian North Caucasus.

The issue of immigration and internal migration was one of the main issues in Moscow’s recent mayoral election won by Sergei Sobyanin.

Related posts

Columbia University protests look increasingly like those in 1968 as police storm campuses nationwide

Nearly 2,200 people have been arrested during pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses

A look at the protests about the war in Gaza that have emerged on US college campuses