More than 80 people have been taken to police stations in Moscow for questioning after a street fight involving migrants. All foreigners involved in the fight will be deported, the Russian Interior Ministry said, quoted by Reuters and BTA.
Russian media published videos showing people fighting in the street with clubs and shovels and breaking windows of parked cars near the Moscow housing complex "Prokshino".
The Russian Interior Ministry said police had arrested 19 people for hooliganism, adding that migrants who had Russian citizenship could lose it. The remaining foreigners involved in the fight would be deported. "Those foreign nationals who are not in prison will be deported and will be banned from re-entering Russia," a ministry spokesman said.
Migration, especially from former Soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus, has become a major domestic political issue in Russia, Reuters noted.
The process of accepting migrants has been limited since a deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall in 2024, which Russian authorities say was carried out by Tajiks. About 6.3 million migrants arrived in Russia in 2024, with authorities saying nearly 50% of them came from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The Russian economy relies on cheap labor from those countries, especially in construction and industry. At the same time, however, Russian citizens have reacted negatively, pointing out that there is a large influx of people with little knowledge of Russian customs and culture.
Russia has been facing acute labor shortages in many sectors since the start of the war in Ukraine, as hundreds of thousands of people have joined the ranks of the army, Reuters also notes.