CITY POLICE ZERO IN ON ‘ETHNIC GANGS’
by Carl Schreck, Staff Writer
The Moscow Times
May 3, 2006 Wednesday
Moscow police are preparing for a citywide crackdown on so-called
ethnic gangs after two policemen were shot dead by what prosecutors
described as members of a Georgian crime group.
Police will stake out known hangouts of ethnic gangs until the
killers of police officers Andrei Ashurkov and Sergei Rebrikov,
who were gunned down early Friday in southern Moscow, are found,
a police official, speaking on the condition of anonymity customary
when discussing police operations, said Tuesday.
“Ethnic gangs” is an umbrella term that generally refers to organized
crime groups from the Caucasus.
Ashurkov and Rebrikov responded to a call from residents of an
apartment building on Ulitsa Kirovogradskaya who said they heard cries
for help from the apartment of an Armenian businessman and his family,
police said.
Ashurkov and Rebrikov walked into a hail of automatic gunfire upon
entering the apartment at around 7:30 a.m., and both died at the
scene, City Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Sergei Marchenko said. Six
suspects wearing tracksuits and black leather jackets fled the scene,
he said. No suspects have been detained.
Rebrikov, 39, is survived by a wife and daughter. Ashurkov was 28.
Following a funeral for the two officers Tuesday, deputy police chief
Vladimir Chugunov said Moscow police were “fighting an uncompromising
battle and even a war against bandits.”
“I’m confident that the killers will be identified and found,”
Chugunov said, RIA-Novosti reported. “I offer them to come in and
give themselves up.”
The Mayor’s Office emphasized the ethic background of the victims.
Spokesman Sergei Tsoi said the “ethnic Russian police officers,
who died heroically” and “acted professionally in defending an
Armenian family,” would be awarded state honors posthumously,
Interfax reported. Authorities closely track and publicize statistical
evaluations of crimes committed by foreigners, primarily from other
former Soviet republics. These statistics are cited by some groups
to justify anti-immigration policies.