ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
September 15, 2006 Friday 09:03 AM EST

Russian prosecutors looking for true causes of ethnic conflicts

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office will generalize the
information about ethnic conflicts to see their true causes, Deputy
Prosecutor General Alexander Buksman told reporters, answering their
questions about the incident in the town of Volsky, Saratov region.

“At present, the Prosecutor General’s Office is generalizing the
information about such events, in order to find out the true causes
that lead to such situations,” Buksman said.

The incident occurred in a Volsky cafe in the evening on September
10. Three local residents came up to a table where Armenian
construction workers were taking a meal. A row flared up which
escalated into a knife fight. The injured were taken to hospital,
where one of them, a local resident, died. The other brawlers
escaped.

Regional law-enforcement bodies see no connection between the
incident and ethnic hate, regional police spokesman Alexei Yegorov
told Itar-Tass on Friday.

“We see no connection between the incident and ethnic hate. Local
residents have always had friendly relations with representatives of
other nationalities. It was a domestic incident,” he underlined.

A criminal case was opened over the fatal fight. The participants in
the brawl have been put on the wanted list. A more precise evaluation
of what has happened will be made after they have been caught,
investigators said.

In late August, two persons were killed and another four were
seriously injured in a mass fight in the Karelian town of Kondopoga.
Prosecutors opened criminal proceedings over the murder of two or
more persons and hooliganism committed by a group of persons.

Six people were detained on suspicion of involvement and one was put
on the wanted list.

Another criminal case was opened over the mass fight near the Chaika
restaurant. On Thursday, Karelian prosecutors brought charges against
Sergei Mozgalyov, 33, the main instigator of the restaurant fight. He
was charged under several counts, including bodily harm with the use
of weapons, and hooliganism-motivated violence.