Racial riots, looting hit Russian town

Reuters

MOSCOW - Hundreds of people looted shops and burned a restaurant belonging to Caucasus businessmen in an outbreak of racial violence in northwestern Russia triggered by the recent killing of two locals, Russian media said on Sunday.

Special police were sent into the town of Kondopoga in Karelia, to quell a riot sparked by a rally of up to 2,000 locals demanding the eviction of all Caucasus-born traders.

Hundreds of people -- many drunk -- marched through the town and looted shops held by Caucasus businessmen. They later stoned and burned down a restaurant were the two locals were killed in a brawl last week. The deaths are blamed on Caucasus natives.

Looters were on the rampage until early morning on Sunday in the town near the Finnish border, setting ablaze several more shops and cars before police finally regained control, said independent radio Ekho Moskvy.

Amateur video footage run on Russian television channels featured police in full riot gear flanked nearby but not interfering while the crowd was plundering the restaurant.

There were no reports on casualties after the riot.

Regional head Sergei Katanandov, speaking on Karelian television, appealed for restraint although he said he understood "the justified anger and indignation of citizens." He said more than 100 looters had been detained.

"Inter-ethnic hatred surfaced in Kondopoga after the killing, and it was exploited by hooligans who provoked disturbances and set shops on fire," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Ekho Moskvy said Kondopoga was still tense, while the local council was awaiting a response from Karelia's parliament to its demand to officially evict all Caucasus residents from the town.

"The authorities do not rule out new riots," the radio said.

Police were not immediately available for comment. Official Rossiya television said this was a "commercial dispute."

Outbursts of racial violence are not uncommon in Russia where xenophobia has flourished since the collapse of communism.

Last month a bomb at a Russian market selling Asian goods killed 11 people, mostly from ex-Soviet Central Asia. Three men have detained on suspicion of racially-inspired crime.