At the same time as the nationalist rally was expected in the city centre, there were reports of a further meeting by disgruntled foreign workers. They were gathering in the south of Moscow to express their angry at a sudden surge of document checks and an increase in police harassment during the heightened security which followed reported. December’s disturbances, gzt.ru But claims of 30 arrests, mostly among Kyrgyz nationals, were rejected by police. An official spokesman told is the first of it. There was gzt.ru: “This I’ve heard nothing.” Amnesty concerns Their complaints were backed up by Amnesty International, which released a statement last week expressing concern about policing during the New Year holidays and claiming ethnic minorities had been barred from Red Square. A statement on the human rights Russian-language read: police arbitrarily group’s “The refused to allow dozens of people onto Red Square on the night [of Dec. 31], especially people of non-Slavic appearance. reported that their documents were checked and some were reportedly arrested. “Many According to information from various sources the number of people from Central Asia and the Caucasus who were arbitrarily stopped on their way to Red Square ranged from a few dozen to several hundred people.” Quiet riot The planned rally in the city centre, meanwhile, failed to generate the kind of chaos experienced in Moscow a month ago. Eye-witnesses reported that small groups of teenagers gathered at Okhotny Ryad and Teatralnaya metro stations from 6:30 pm, but they were thwarted by a reinforced police presence which blocked off access to the area around Manezhnaya and evacuated the shopping centre. According to gzt.ru there were more journalists than nationalists at the site of the planned demonstration, and by people had been arrested. 8 pm “several dozen” Precise numbers of arrests were unclear: the police reported 10 people had been detained, while Interfax news agency claimed more than 100 had been arrested.
At the same time as the nationalist rally was expected in the city centre, there were reports of a further meeting by disgruntled foreign workers. They were gathering in the south of Moscow to express their angry at a sudden surge of document checks and an increase in police harassment during the heightened security which followed December’s disturbances, gzt.ru reported. But claims of 30 arrests, mostly among Kyrgyz nationals, were rejected by police. An official spokesman told gzt.ru: “This is the first I’ve heard of it. There was nothing.” Amnesty concerns Their complaints were backed up by Amnesty International, which released a statement last week expressing concern about policing during the New Year holidays and claiming ethnic minorities had been barred from Red Square. A statement on the human rights group’s Russian-language read: “The police arbitrarily refused to allow dozens of people onto Red Square on the night [of Dec. 31], especially people of non-Slavic appearance. “Many reported that their documents were checked and some were reportedly arrested. According to information from various sources the number of people from Central Asia and the Caucasus who were arbitrarily stopped on their way to Red Square ranged from a few dozen to several hundred people.” Quiet riot The planned rally in the city centre, meanwhile, failed to generate the kind of chaos experienced in Moscow a month ago. Eye-witnesses reported that small groups of teenagers gathered at Okhotny Ryad and Teatralnaya metro stations from 6:30 pm, but they were thwarted by a reinforced police presence which blocked off access to the area around Manezhnaya and evacuated the shopping centre. According to gzt.ru there were more journalists than nationalists at the site of the planned demonstration, and by 8 pm “several dozen” people had been arrested. Precise numbers of arrests were unclear: the police reported 10 people had been detained, while Interfax news agency claimed more than 100 had been arrested.
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