Summary from SOVA: Mass riots in a Karelian town of Kondopoga

Mass riots took place this weekend in a small - less then 40 thousand inhabitants - town of Kondopoga in the republic of Karelia (which is situated to the North of St. Petersburg). It began on the night of August 30 with an ordinary fight of drunken people in a restaurant :Chaika;, which belongs to a businessman from Chechnya. The fighters from the both sides of the conflict were very likely to be criminals. The same evening, by the appeal of the Chechen man, who had suffered in the fight, a group of some other Chechen men arrived to the restaurant and started a mass fight. Many people were beaten (some of them had not taken part in the first conflict), two Russian ethnic men were killed, two more died - presumably - in the hospital, some others were seriously injured. Reportedly, the assailants were shouting :Allah akbar; and anti-Russian slogans. The police didn't interfere in the fight.

This event raised indignation in the town, where the level of xenophobia against people from the Caucasus had been already high. This indignation was used by the local nationalists from the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (Russian abbreviation - DPNI). They were supported by the Moscow leader Alexander Potkin (Belov), who came to Kondopoga. A meeting of the Kondopoga inhabitants was appointed on September 2 to claim the incident to be properly investigated and all the people from the Caucasus to be deported from the town.

But the situation went beyond these discriminating claims. A crowd of inhabitants - mostly young people - attempted to smash the restaurant and put it on fire at the night before the appointed meeting. This was suppressed by a riot police troop which had arrived to the town. There were serious clashes with the riot police all over the town, disorderly attacks on the people from the Caucasus (including in their houses), arsons of their property. As a result, almost all of the Caucasian inhabitants of the town left it.

Nevertheless, the meeting took place on September 2. The resolution included such claims as to establish a :people's squad; and also to revise the registration in Kondopoga of all the :visitors;, with the :representatives of the people; participating in this revision. The local authorities started negotiations with the representatives of the gathered people and approved an idea to take the :Chaika; restaurant away from the owner.

However, the same evening the crowd resumed the attempts to attack the :Chaika; restaurant. The first assault was restrained by the riot police, but the second one was a success, because this time police didn't interfere and the restaurant was burned down. There were at least 10 more other arsons that evening. The riot police actively (and as usual cruelly) started to disperse groups of people on the streets. It is very likely to be, that there were not only the perpetrators of the pogrom dispersed, but also just sympathizers. There were over hundred people detained during this night. On the morning of September 3, 25 of them were sentenced to 15 days of arrest for hooliganism.

The situation in the town started to calm down. In spite of the DPNI leadership calls to the nationalists to come to Kondopoga, apparently not many of them responded. Instead there were more police troops coming to the town. Six suspects of the murders and beatings on the August 30 night were arrested (3 of them were given up by the Chechen community). There were criminal cases opened on the facts of the initial fight and the following pogroms. On September 4 night, there was another attempt to put the :Chaika; restaurant on fire, but it was restrained by the riot police. There were other arson attempts, but much less than the previous night.

There is a threat that such events may happen in other towns of Karelia and Archangelsk region. The law machinery is put on alert.