MOSCOW, November 19 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow police said Tuesday they detained more than 600 people at a market in the Russian capital to check their possible involvement in crime.
The city police rounded up hundreds at the Sadovod market in the southeast of the city, including many people from former Soviet republics.
A spokesperson said the police plan to fingerprint those detained and check if they are wanted in connection with any wrongdoing, or if they are staying in Russia legally.
The Moscow authorities have in recent months staged a series of police raids on the city’s market places, including Sadovod, which employ many migrants from former Soviet republics. They say the move is an attempt to root out crime in the capital, although critics have dismissed the tactic as a populist stunt.
In October, hundreds of nationalist protesters rioted at a Moscow market after a local man was knifed to death by a man the police later said was from Azerbaijan.
