MOSCOW, July 29 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow police said Monday that they had detained a man accused of bashing in a policeman’s skull during a brawl, which triggered a crackdown on marketplaces around the city.
The suspect was taken off an outgoing intercity bus on the outskirts of Moscow, a police spokesman told RIA Novosti.
An Investigative Committee spokesman identified the suspect as Magomed Rasulov. The committee had said earlier that the man faced life in prison for the attempted murder of a law enforcement officer.
Rasulov is believed to have been among the 20 to 25 people who attacked a police squad trying to detain a suspected sex offender at a market in western Moscow on Saturday. Police said Rasulov was responsible for smashing an officer’s head, apparently using brass knuckles. The incident was captured on camera. The officer was sent to intensive care with a brain injury.
The attack fueled ethnic tensions in Moscow, whose marketplaces employ many migrants from post-Soviet states and representatives of ethnic minorities from the North Caucasus who, though Russian citizens, are also treated as migrants by many Russians outside North Caucasus.
Moscow police conducted sweeping checks of the city’s marketplaces Monday, reporting that about 300 people were detained in an attempt to “de-criminalize Moscow marketplaces.” A police spokesman said prior to Rasulov’s detention that raids would continue in the coming days.
