Murder of Egor Sviridov

The murder of Egor Sviridov was the killing of an FC Spartak Moscow fan in a clash between two groups of youth, one of which was composed of recent migrants from Russia's North Caucasus republics.

Sviridov's death provoked a number of high-profile rallies and rioting in the capital as well as in Saint Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don and other cities across Russia.

[6][7][8] Despite Cherkesov and his gang claiming to be acting in self-defence, witnesses state that it was they who actually initiated the brawl, as well as outnumbering the Russian Spartak fans 8 to 5.

According to General-Mayor of the militsiya Vyacheslav Haustov (Вячеслав Хаустов) - Over 1000 people, members of various football clubs, participated in an unsanctioned demonstration.

On 12 December, in the area of the "Kolomenskaya metro station", five teenagers attacked a citizen of Kyrgyzstan, beat him and stabbed him, as a result of which he died.

Early in the day almost 10,000 people came to the Vodny Stadion (Moscow Metro) station and from there proceeded to Kronshtadt Boulevard, where Egor Sviridov was killed, to lay down flowers and light candles.

[14] As OMON forces tried to control the situation, some protesters tried to breach the cordon on their way to Biblioteka Imeni Lenina, resulting in fights between the parties.

[15][16] Three members of a nazbol (far-right) group, the Other Russia party (formerly linked to Putin through Dugin), were imprisoned for organizing the riot.

People started gathering on Pioneer Square (Пионерская площадь) and heading in the direction of Pushkinskaya Metro station (Пушкинская).

At 19:00 about 350 people gathered by Tsentralnyi Profsoyuz Stadion (Центральный стадион профсоюзов), the city's central arena, to mourn the death of Egor Sviridov.

The crowd was approached by Alexander Panyukov (Russian: Александр Панюков), the healthy living and sport manager for the Voronezh region.

At that time, Sergey Pashnev (Russian: Серге́й Пашнев), a colonel in the militsiya, joined the conversation and together with Alexander Panyukov had suggested that the procession head to Victory Square instead.

[20] 80 young people gathered at the Russian Mother monument to lay flowers and light candles in memory of Egor Sviridov.