Dozens of people staged a protest in the eastern Siberian city of Yakutsk on Wednesday in response to the death of a local resident who was killed during a dispute with a man originally from Tajikistan, according to the news outlet SakhaDay.
A local security police deputy tried to convince the demonstrators to disperse, but to no avail. “The killer has been arrested,” he reportedly told them. “He’s a Russian citizen just like you all. We caught him and there will be an investigation. Guys, what are you gathered here for?”
The protesters proceeded to march down several city streets, after which police began arresting them.
The Russian Investigative Committee reported the killing on January 21. According to law enforcement, it occurred when a group of men who got into a fight at a nightclub in the city decided to meet up the following day to settle the dispute. The encounter reportedly ended in several people being stabbed, one fatally.
Yakutia Governor Aysen Nikolayev has vowed to look into the “circumstances” under which the main suspect in the killing obtained Russian citizenship.
The republic’s foreign minister released a video statement from local Tajik community leader Khodi Oev in which he called on his neighbors “not to just an entire national group based on one person.”
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