Moscow police arrest 1,200 migrants in massive operation

Russian police officers have arrested around 1,200 people in a massive police operation targeting migrants, a day after riots in the capital of Moscow.

The mass detention was part of an anti-migrant raid on a produce market on the southern outskirts of the Russian capital, authorities said Monday.

“During a preventative raid on a vegetable warehouse in the Biryulyovo district about 1,200 people were taken to police precincts to be checked for involvement in criminal activity,” a police spokesperson.

This is while, a violent Sunday protest broke out at the factory where a young ethnic Russian was allegedly stabbed to death by a migrant last week. Russian security forces arrested nearly 400 protesters.

According to Russian media, rioters clashed with police, smashed shop windows and stormed the warehouse, where they believed the killer worked.

The suspected murderer, who fled the scene, is believed to be from Central Asia or North Caucasus — a region in southern Russia.

Experts said the violence reflects Russian nationalism, as well as the growing tension between ethnic Russians and migrants from the Caucasus region and from former Soviet republics.

Russian Migrants Federation President Mukhammad Amin warned representatives of ethnic communities of the protests in Moscow, saying, “Attacks are likely in different parts of Moscow. Nationalists are in a very aggressive mood.”