Support The Moscow Times!

Suspect in Manezh Rioting

A fugitive North Caucasus native involved in a fight that triggered December nationalist rioting in Moscow has been detained in Dagestan by investigators dispatched from the capital, Interfax reported.

Ramzan Utarbiyev, born in 1990, is the sixth and last Caucasus native wanted over a drunken brawl that left football fan Yegor Sviridov shot dead.

Only one Caucasus-born participant of the fight — the suspected killer — was initially detained, prompting some 5,500 people to gather on Manezh Square and clash with police.

Utarbiyev, on the run after the incident, posted a video appeal online last month, claiming he and his friends were made scapegoats by authorities.

(MT)

Read more