Berkut: no signs of war of ethnic criminal groupings in Moscow yet

The topic of "the start of interethnic war" that appeared in the context of the recent murder of an Azerbaijani and shooting at a Dagestanian in the Russian capital is nothing more than another "mobilization horror story" for law enforcement bodies and "a pleasant topic of informational hysteria" for mass media. This is the opinion of Dmitri Berkut, a former employee of special subdivisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Russian Federation.

"I'm amazed by journalists' hysteria; they write that 'attacks on Azerbaijani natives are frequent enough in Moscow and other Russian cities.' They support it by allegedly 'horrifying statistics', compiled nobody knows for whom. I remind you that only in Moscow in 2008 about 4000 criminal cases went to courts under Article 105 of Russian Criminal Code 'Murder'. In statistics of the MIA and Prosecutor's Office they are not split by the nationality attribute," Mr Berkut said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

We remind you that at night on May 6, in Moscow, an armed attack was committed on a native of Azerbaijan, and then - on a native of Dagestan. As a result of received gunshot wounds, the Azerbaijani died on the way to hospital, and the Dagestanian was lucky to survive, but he was hospitalized in a grave condition.

Dmitri Berkut said that already this year the number of murders in the capital only makes about one thousand. "If journalists find that among the casualties there are at least 150-200 Azerbaijanis, which is impossible, since there's no such statistics; even if it could have been so, at the general background it obviously couldn't be treated as the 'anti-Azerbaijan apocalypse', whatever cynical it sounds," said the former special agent of Russia's MIA.

According to his story, this sort of information reports is beneficial both for media and militia; they are not beneficial only for the "heroes" - Azerbaijanis as such.

"As soon as they start talking about some 'ethnic war', I assure you, orders will arrive to hold raids over marketplaces, construction sites, cafes, car services and other places, where the people can work, named in the language of militia 'persons of Caucasian appearance'. The OMON will get carte blanche to hold 'mild zachistkas' in these places, resulting in detentions, deliveries to ROVDs and drawing up protocols on administrative offences," Dmitri Berkut said.

"In the end - everyone is busy. Journalists will write fascinating reports of another militia's fight against 'ethnic clashes', and the militia will fulfil their plan on arrests, and, on the other hand, they will have their bribes from these detainees or 'would-be detainees'," he has added.