13:36, 19 November 2008

Student from North Ossetia killed in mass fight in Moscow

On November 17, during a fight in a Moscow-based higher school between natives of Ingushetia and North Ossetia, a student from North Ossetia was killed. The capital's militia marks a sharp growth in the number of interethnic conflicts among students.

Victor Biryukov, head of the information and PR department of the Moscow GUVD (Municipal Department of Internal Affairs), has reported that, according to the GUVD, the pretext for the fight was a conflict between young men, natives from Ingushetia and North Ossetia on November 17. "As a result of the fight, one of the young men - Oleg Chertikrev, a native of North Ossetia, - received a piercing knife wound and subsequently died," said Mr Biryukov.

A criminal case was initiated on the given fact under Article 105, part 1 of the Criminal Code of Russia ("Murder"). The investigation is underway, the "Interfax" reports.

According to the "Moskovskiy Komsomolets" newspaper, Oleg Chertikrev, 19, was a student of the Moscow State Pedagogical University.