The head of Karelia expressed solidarity with the nationalists

On September 5, 2006, the Kommersant newspaper published a commentary by the head of the Republic of Karelia on the events in Kondopoga, in which Sergey Katanandov actually sided with the nationalists, justifying the actions of the pogromists by "inconsistency in the mentality of the newcomers", dividing the residents of the city, Russian citizens into "our people" and "other people".

Literally, he stated the following: “The main reason was that in front of our eyes a group of representatives of another nation behaved boldly and defiantly, ignoring the mentality of our people . Northern people need to be brought for a long time. In general, I understand the feelings of those people who took to the streets. But at the same time, we will do everything possible to ensure that the instigators of the riots are punished and the rights of Russian citizens, including natives of the Caucasus, are respected.Our goal is to drive out of here impudent, impudent youth who do not respect us, while local authorities and law enforcement agencies clearly turned a blind eye to many abuses (take, for example, racing on "Mercedes" without numbers)), while our citizens were fully responsible for the same violations. We are not against the inhabitants of the Caucasus, on the contrary, our doors are always open for honest and hardworking people, but we will not allow our laws to be disrespected" (highlighted by us - ed. ).

Sources

• Tsyganov Andrey. "Behaved boldly, ignoring the mentality of our people" // Kommersant. 2006. September 5.