Attacks on Anzhi fans were aimed at fuelling ethnic tensions - Dagestan's president
MAKHACHKALA. Aug 25 (Interfax) - The attacks on fans of the Makhachkala football club Anzhi in Moscow and St. Petersburg were aimed at fanning ethnic feud," Dagestan's President Magomedsalam Magomedov said.
"Certain forces decided to use the game [between Anzhi and the Dutch AZ Alkmaar] to fuel ethnic hysteria and fan fuel between the peoples of the Russian Federation and weaken the unity of our country," Magomedov said in a statement posted on his website on Friday.
Magomedov reiterated that the game was won by the Makhachkala club and "most Russian fans took that with enthusiasm as a success of domestic sports."
Magomedov said in his statement that the attack on Anzhi fans in St. Petersburg, in which several people were hurt, "was accompanied by threats and shouting that insulted the national dignity of the people of Dagestan and other Caucasus peoples."
"This outrageous fact indicates that there are people who try to use every opportunity to drive a wedge in the relations between the peoples of the country, turning sports into a tool for achieving their political ends," Magomedov said.
Magomedov recalled that these incidents are "not the first ethnic hate crime against fans and footballers."
However, he said that "this is the first time in the history of domestic football when fans of some Russian clubs deliberately attacked another Russian participant of a European tour."
According to earlier reports, the St. Petersburg police opened a criminal case on the basis of the fight that occurred near the McDonalds in the city's Moskovsky Prospekt in the late hours of August 22. According to the police, six attackers were detained and three victims were hospitalized.
The investigators link the attack to a conflict between Zenit and Anzhi fans.
A leader of a Zenit fan group, who asked not to be identified, later told Interfax the fan conflicts taking place in St. Petersburg have no ethnic motives and are related solely to conflicts between movements.
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