Russia quizzes anti-migrant leader on maiming remarks
Source: Reuters
MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Prosecutors on Friday questioned a Russian anti-immigration campaigner accused of stirring up ethnic hatred by accusing Chechen migrants of cutting off ears of two native Russians before their death in a brawl in August. Alexander Potkin, public relations chief for the Movement Against Illegal Migration (DPNI), said on national television in September the Chechens had maimed their victims. Prosecutors insist he had deliberately exaggerated the incident saying that an examination showed there had been no such cruelty. The fight, over an unpaid bill between local Russians and ethnic Chechens in the town of Kondopoga near the Finnish border, sparked a protest that turned into mass riots forcing the Chechen community to flee the town. Potkin said he stood by his comments about the maiming charges, adding that he had personally talked to a morgue worker about the killings and did not feel any guilt. "His words are on videotape ... He saw himself that the corpses had their ears cut off and it was probably done when they were still alive," Potkin told Reuters by telephone, adding the worker was experienced and knew what he was talking about. The prosecutors said in a statement that Potkin had separately called for measures aimed at stirring up hostility towards Chechens, other Russian Caucasians and immigrants from Azerbaijan and Armenia living in Kondopoga. Speaking before the questioning session, Potkin accused the Russian secret police, the FSB, of asking regional prosecutors to investigate him as part of a wider clampdown on the DPNI. "The affair is contrived. They are obviously acting on someone's order. It's more about psychological pressure," he said. Organisations like DPNI thrive on widespread racism in Russia. Dozens of foreign workers and students with non-Slav features and dark complexion have been killed or wounded in racist attacks, with many of the attackers escaping justice.
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