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Riot Police Stands for Caucasians Against Slavs
Russia’s southern city of Stavropol survived the anti-Caucasian riots yesterday that followed funeral of Dmitry Blokhin. Blokhin and another student, Pavel Chadin, were killed there June 3, on the ninth day after the mass clashes of Slavs and Caucasians.
Dmitry Blokhin was buried in the North-West district of Stavropol (Pavel Chadin was laid to rest in Blagodarny), where the biggest cemetery of the city is located. Exactly there, a student of Chechnya was killed during the mass scuffle of May 24.
Blokhin and Chadin were killed in revenge for the murder of a Chechen man, their relatives and friends are sure. No one, who took part in the funeral, believed in detectives’ story that the robbery was the purpose of killing.
On the same day, nearly a thousand gathered by 7:00 p.m. on Lenin Square close to headquarters of Stavropol authorities. The slogans of crowd were belligerent enough: “Hail Russia!”, “Russia, Go, Go!”, “Suitcase, Railway Station, Chechnya” and “Our Own Mob Law!”
Stavropol Mayor Dmitry Kuzmin and Region’s Acting Vice Governor Anatoly Voropaev proved courageous enough to stay with the mob. Their concern was to urge the locals to choose most respected and commit them to negotiate with authorities. But the demand of the crowd was to have the governor right there on the square.
Predictably, the governor didn’t show up before the people that day. “Let’s go where there are no cops!” someone called, and a group of roughly 200 to 300, their faces covered with red kerchiefs, marched to Tourist Hotel, the place of residence for many Chechens.
But the Slavs were well-expected by riot police there. Minor scuffles erupted and the officers enjoyed the whip-hand. Dozens of activists were detained and jammed into the busses that drove the officers to the place of decisive clash with the locals not long ago.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 06, 2007
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