Russian National Guard spokesperson says actions of troops who injured 30 at hip-hop festival were ‘appropriate’

Source: Moskva

Russian National Guard representative Valery Gribakin said the actions of National Guard police officers at Moscow’s Hip-Hop Mayday festival were “appropriate to the situation.” After a small number of audience members threw tiling at National Guard troops to protest crowd control efforts, the officers began beating those around them at random, injuring 30.

Gribakin told the Moskva news agency, “We will respond by any means necessary to violations of any laws […] In the case of the tactics used at the festival in question, believe me, the reaction was appropriate to the situation.”

National Guard representatives had declined to comment on the May 1 clashes immediately after the fact.