Attack at the Yuzhny market in Stavropol

On August 22, 2012, in Stavropol, at the Yuzhny food market, a group of five people attacked vegetable traders.

Shooting from traumatic weapons was opened at natives of Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. As a result, 5 traders were hospitalized with injuries from traumatic weapons. Judging by media reports, the injuries are not life-threatening. The attackers fled in a car. The owner of the car was later detained, but released because the car had previously been sold to him by proxy.

According to some eyewitnesses, as they ran away from the scene of the attack, the attackers shouted that they were “polar bears” and that “they will restore order here.” According to the same traders, before the attack the group approached them with the question “where are all your people?” The attackers were dressed in ordinary clothes, without masks. A criminal case was initiated under Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hooliganism).

Law enforcement officials initially interpreted the attack solely as domestic. They cited a version of a criminal redistribution of spheres of influence in the market and a version with a previous conflict between a certain couple (according to another version, one woman) with traders over body kit, allegedly the traders themselves told the dissatisfied something like “well, go to the polar bears,” and this resulted to an invitation to the couple’s friends to “deal with” the traffickers.

But later, law enforcement agencies noted that they were considering a possible connection between the attack and attacks on residents of the Caucasus that had previously occurred in the city.

Sources

• Based on materials from right-wing radical sites.
• Southern traders were shot at a market in Stavropol. “Polar bears” were suspected // Newsru.com. 2012. August 22.