Even the curbs were vandalized

Petersburg fans traditionally celebrated the victory of Zenit in the championship of Russia-2010 on the main street of the city. About 2 thousand young people (every second with beer, champagne or vodka) went to Nevsky Prospekt to walk along it...

Petersburg fans traditionally celebrated the victory of Zenit in the championship of Russia-2010 on the main street of the city. About 2 thousand young people (every second with beer, champagne or vodka) went to Nevsky Prospekt to march along it in a victorious march from Vosstaniya Square to Dvortsovaya.

Along the way, they were “insured” by several traffic police cars and accompanied by units of the PPSM (police patrol service), which the blue-white-blue fans tirelessly reminded: “Football is for fans, not for trash.”

Fans clashed with law enforcement officers at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and the Griboedov Canal embankment near the Book House.

“The traffic police tried to drive us into a “trap”, forcing the drivers to turn left, onto the Griboedov Canal, and thereby block our passage,” says Sergey Gambeev, a fan of FC Zenit. “But nothing came of it. We asked the motorists to wait, and they already agreed to let us go ahead, but then the riot police arrived in time ...

A group of fans (about 500 people) nevertheless turned out to be forced out onto the roadway. And it was them that the riot police called for reinforcements, after a few minutes, undertook to build in the same order. The fans could not stand it and began to throw bottles, lit fireworks and other pyrotechnics at the riot police. The policemen also spared no effort, according to eyewitnesses, they beat the youth with batons to the max. Then tear gas was sprayed: it became impossible to breathe in the crowd.

“And then I saw,” says Andrey Zakharyev, a St. Petersburg philosopher who was present at the scene, “that three bastards, I don’t know what else to call them, were kicking a police sergeant lying on the pavement on the head. They beat me furiously, and it’s good that caring people ran up, I rushed to him myself, I had to use force to protect the life of the policeman, who was lying unconscious, covered in blood. The doctors who arrived on call said that the sergeant's pulse could be felt ...

Immediately after the fight, mass arrests began. In total, the PPSM and OMON officers took about a hundred representatives of the fan movement to the police departments. However, the riot police soon had to retreat: in terms of numbers, they were clearly inferior to the enemy. The fans reached the Palace Square almost unhindered.

Witnesses of the brawl claim that at least five people turned to doctors for help. Neither confirmed nor denied this:

“Information about the victims on Nevsky Prospekt on November 14 is closed,” Irina Kotova, press secretary of the city's ambulance station, told the Novaya correspondent. - For comments - in the police department.

In the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, without batting an eyelid, they deny not only the losses in their ranks, but also the very fact of unrest and clashes between employees of the department and fans.

- There was no fight. We controlled the movement of fans, stopped attempts of illegal actions, but we did not take any drastic measures against the fans and did not allow any incidents, the department said.

Only late in the evening of November 15 did the Central Internal Affairs Directorate comment on the photos of mass clashes and a beaten policeman posted on the Internet.

- The fight between the fans of "Zenith" and the riot police is a fiction, - the press service of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate emphasized once again. — 14 people were detained for administrative violations.

An employee of the PPSM of the Kronstadt District Department of Internal Affairs, who was injured during the pacification of the fans, was hospitalized with a craniocerebral injury, but, according to the Central Department of Internal Affairs, he did not participate in a collision with hooligans, he simply stumbled over a curb and hit his head.