Several hundred Chechens and dark-skinned people from the Caucasus have been forced to flee a town in northwest Russia after a brawl in a restaurant prompted a race riot last weekend.
The exodus of minorities from Kondopoga in the Karelia region near the border with Finland followed a mob rampage through the town on Saturday and the burning of the Chayka (Seagull) restaurant that belongs to an Azeri businessman. The conflict was triggered by the death last week of two ethnic Russians after a fight in the restaurant.
That fight apparently started when a group of Russians celebrating the release of a friend from prison argued with an Azeri barman, who then called the restaurant's security workers, some of whom were Chechen.
Six people were later detained in connection with the fight, which involved about 25 people -- some armed with knives, baseball bats and iron bars -- and left three seriously injured.
Police said on Monday that 109 people had been arrested in connection with the riots, which developed after a demonstration about the restaurant incident on Saturday. The protest of about 2,000 people was partly organized by xenophobic groups calling for revenge on Caucasians over the internet.
No one was hurt but several businesses belonging to people from the Caucasus were attacked over the weekend and local authorities helped about 30 Chechen families flee by bus to safety in another town.
The riots reflect growing social tension after a wave of racist attacks that have seen ultra-right groups targeting immigrants and people from Russia's northern Caucasus republics. Last month 10 people died when two men placed bombs in a Moscow market where they thought there were too many Asian traders.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the prime minister of Chechnya, launched an attack on police in Karelia on Monday, blaming them for not taking stronger action against the rioters.
"I appeal to the Russian authorities, to all sane Russian forces to do the utmost to prevent the nationalist infection and xenophobia that is ripening in society and spreading like a cancer throughout the body of our common home," he said.
He called for a ban on the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI), which he blamed for inflaming the situation.
Alexander Smirnov, a spokesman for Karelia governor Sergei Katanandov, said prosecutors were investigating video footage of DPNI activists whose participation in the demonstration led to the racial incidents.
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