23:43, 14 December 2006

Kondopoga events: MAII leader accused of extremism

Alexander Belov, leader of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (MAII) was summoned to Petrozavodsk for interrogation. The public prosecutor's office of the Republic of Karelia has established that A. A. Potkin (Belov) "had purposefully arrived from Moscow and took active part in organizing and holding on September 2 in the town of Kondopoga of non-sanctioned more than two thousand strong meeting; he also participated in drafting demands to local administration in relation to non-indigenous population of the town, directed at instigation of hatred to the citizens who had come to Kondopoga from Chechnya and republics of the Caucasian region, and who live in Kondopoga," the "Gazeta.Ru" reports.

We remind you that the cause of mass disorders in the town of Kondopoga, Republic of Karelia, was a mass fight of locals with Caucasian natives in the course of which two persons were killed. As a consequence of the unrest that followed, the members of national minorities, the Chechen Diaspora inclusive, left Kondopoga.