Teenagers suspected of attacks on migrants and homeless people detained in St. Petersburg

Teenagers suspected of attacks on migrants and homeless people have been detained in St. Petersburg.

On November 12, 2020, two 17-year-old students of school No. 380 and a 16-year-old student of the Avtoservis technical school were detained in St. Petersburg on suspicion of attacking migrants and the homeless.

According to media reports, the detainees are ultra-right (nicknames "Alyosha Cherny", "Zhenya Schmeiser" and the Merciless Killer) carried out several attacks on migrants and the homeless. The attacks were filmed, two of which are available online.

On November 12, on the birthday of one of the teenagers, they planned to hold an action "Cleansing St. Petersburg from non-Russians" . They met at the Kirovsky Zavod metro station and beat several people. The detainees said that they were "offered to hold the rally by a certain young man, nicknamed the Gestapo. However, he himself did not come to the 'cleansing operation' - on the day of the rally, he allegedly called the teenagers and said that he had caught a cold."

On November 19, 2020, the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region reported that two more 16-year-old college students were detained.

A criminal case was opened against the detainees for an attack on migrants on October 22, 2020. A case was initiated under the article robbery (Article 162 of the Criminal Code). On October 18, 2020, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg opened a criminal case under Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code (hooliganism). The suspects were seized an air gun, a knife, a mask with eye holes, mobile phones, a laptop, a system unit, a signaling device and empty shells for it, as well as items "with symbols of the ultra-right ideology." Three suspects are under house arrest, two have been questioned as witnesses. One of the suspects is under house arrest, two minors have been released from the police department without restrictions.

The press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs told the journalists that they had been detained "for committing an administrative offense."

Sources

• Two more teenagers were caught in the "cleaning" of St. Petersburg from migrants // Nevsky News. November 19, 2020
• Donskoy Dmitry. In St. Petersburg, a case was opened against teenagers who attacked migrants. Fontanka writes that they beat up street cleaners and homeless people in order to “clean up” the city // Meduza. November 15, 2020
• Vyshenkov Evgeny, Metelkova Inna. Petersburg was cleared of non-Russians. Schoolchildren who gassed migrant janitors testify against the Gestapo // Fontanka. November 15, 2020