Saturday clashes in central Moscow have nothing to do with football and are linked with the problems inside Russian society, the head of the Spartak Moscow football fan club said.
Some 5,000 young people, mainly football fans and members of nationalist organizations, protesting the death of Spartak Moscow fan Yegor Sviridov gathered on central Moscow's Manezh Square earlier on Saturday. They ignored police demands to disperse and clashes broke out.
A police source said one person has died and 29 people were hospitalized with injuries.
"One should understand that everything what happened today and earlier has nothing to do with the Spartak football club. This is not the position of the club wanting to pull away. This is a problem of our society. This is not football," Yegor Petrov, the fan club chief, told RIA Novosti.
He said that people united not by football but by other ideas gathered on the Manezh square adding that it is easier to blame fans for the clashes.
Sergei Fursenko, the president of the Russian Football Union, said that the clashes were provoked by members of nationalist organizations.
He said that the union will launch a campaign promoting ethnic tolerance and health way of life among football fans.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said he will look into the causes of Saturday clashes.
"As far as I know the movement of football fans has never been politicized and has never yielded to provocations," the minister said promising to boost his work with football fans.
Sviridov, 28, was killed earlier this week during a mass brawl between football fans and internal migrants from the North Caucasus in north Moscow.
Police have already detained a man suspected of shooting him four times with a gun firing rubber bullets and two other migrants suspected of participating in the brawl.
MOSCOW, December 11 (RIA Novosti)
