| The Prosecutor General's Office pointed out to its Moscow colleagues the national motive of the hooligans Before the capital’s authorities had time to deal with the story of the beating on Saturday of the famous singer and Minister of Culture of Kabardino-Balkaria Zaur Tutov, who, in his opinion, suffered from fascist thugs, a new similar emergency happened in the city. On Monday night, unknown persons beat Elkhan Mirzoev, producer of the NTV information service, in the metro. According to the journalist, the thugs attacked him without any reason, saying only that “they don’t like chicks.” The Prosecutor General's Office announced yesterday that it was taking control of the investigation of these cases and demanded that the Moscow prosecutor's office change their classification, recognizing the presence of motives of national hatred in the actions of the attackers. The capital's police, however, continued to insist yesterday that in the case of both Mr. Tutov and Mr. Mirzoev, there are no traces of racism yet.
NTV producer, Azerbaijani by nationality Elkhan Mirzoev was beaten on Monday night in the subway. “I was returning from a friend’s house from the Moscow State University building on Vorobyovy Gory somewhere at the beginning of one,” said the journalist himself. -- At the Park Kultury station, a company of four young men and one girl entered the carriage. They all drank beer. They were dressed simply. Only one of the guys had a short haircut and was wearing high-soled boots - the kind skinheads wear. After looking around the carriage, he came up, sat down next to me and spoke. He said that he works as a security guard in a restaurant and asked politely what I was doing in this country and if I was going to leave here. Then he began to tell me more aggressively to get out of here, that he doesn’t like Jews and “chocks,” that people like me have taken over the whole country.” When the train was approaching the Okhotny Ryad station, one of the young men approached the producer from behind and poured beer on his head. Mr. Mirzoev, according to him, hit the guy who did it. He stayed on his feet because he was holding on to the handrail and then hit the producer on the head with a bottle. When the journalist fell, all four thugs attacked him, shouting “Beat the chick!” When the carriage doors opened, the fight moved to the platform. At that moment, when the train was about to leave the station, the thugs, snatching the victim’s bag, managed to jump into the carriage. “The driver, seeing the fight, slowed down,” Mr. Mirzoev said. “I approached him covered in blood.” He told me that he would transfer information about the incident to the Lubyanka station and the villains would be detained there. However, at Lubyanka, as I was told later, the guards simply did not have time to get onto the platform. The stolen bag with valuable notebooks and money, which the attackers apparently did not find, was returned to me. She was found at Chistye Prudy.
The prosecutor's office yesterday refused to talk about this emergency, citing the secrecy of the investigation. But the Internal Affairs Directorate at the Moscow Metro said: “Are you sure that he was beaten because of racial hatred? How many people who drink on the subway, especially in the evening, have never been noticed? How many fights happen because of this? Let’s find out what’s what.”
A similar situation arose yesterday with the investigation into the case of Zaur Tutov, who was beaten on Saturday evening near the Sokolinaya Gora recreation center. He himself, as reported by the Vremya Novostey newspaper, said that when he came to pick up his daughter, who was studying in the dance group “Adygi” at the recreation center, at the entrance he noticed a group of young people drinking beer and pestering the girls. Angry that they were not being paid attention to, according to Mr. Tutov, the thugs began shouting: “Russia is for Russians,” “Moscow is for Muscovites,” etc. When Mr. Tutov answered one of the hooligans that he was “more Russian than you” (Mr. Tutov is known primarily as a performer of Russian folk romances), he was immediately hit on the head with a bottle.
The capital’s prosecutor’s office initially assessed both of these incidents as “intentional infliction of moderate harm to health,” leaving the nationalist motive behind the scenes. But yesterday the Prosecutor General’s Office took control of both cases and demanded that the city prosecutor’s office add the wording “committed on the basis of national hatred or enmity.”
Moreover, in Mr. Tutov’s case, it didn’t take long to look for the perpetrators. Already yesterday afternoon one of them was detained. “The detainee turned out to be a local resident born in 1977. The identities of the remaining participants in the conflict have also been established,” the Eastern District Internal Affairs Directorate reported. During interrogation, the young man said that they had gathered near the building of the Palace of Culture only because one of his friends was “signing up” on the occasion of a wedding. According to the detainee, the initiator of the conflict was Tutov himself - allegedly, leaving the cultural center, he rudely ordered the guys to leave. “The detainee says that they refused, and someone jokingly invited the official to drink beer with them. He became furious. He called the driver for help and, saying that “he is a boxer and will kill everyone now,” rushed at the youth. One of the young people, in self-defense, hit Tutov once on the head with a bottle,” said a source in the Internal Affairs Directorate. - There was no protracted fight, no nationalist cries. After Tutov was hit, everyone began to separate each other. We have fights like this all the time.” Alexey IVLEV |
|
