One day after an anti-migrant riot broke out in Moscow injuring over 20 people and leading to the arrests of hundreds Russian police raided a vegetable warehouse and arrested over 1,000 migrant workers, according to the Washington Post.
Thousands of young people gathered in southern Moscow to demand that migrant workers from the Northern Caucasus be evicted from the country after the stabbing death of a 25-year-old, Yegor Shcherbakov. Shcherbakov was allegedly stabbed and killed by a person from Central Asian origin, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Rioters overturned cars, smashed store windows, threw bottles and tried to break into a market operated by migrants before clashing with police. Chants of "Russia for Russians" and "Moscow for Muscovites" were heard from the crowd, according to the Times.
"On Sunday, extremist persons decided to take advantage of the situation... Many of them were drunk," Anatoly Yakunin, a senior Moscow police official, said. "They were young people, unfortunately women among them too. They began to cross the legal line in actions bordering on mass disorders."
Cheered on by dozens of people who supported the rioters police raided a warehouse in southern Moscow in what Moscow police were describing as a "pre-emptive" raid. Police said that the workers were to be investigated for potential crimes and that they had also found a car full of money and unlicensed firearms, according to the Associated Press.
Many of the supporters who showed up to the raid told reporters from the Associated Press that the rioters offered them more protection than the police who they see as corrupt.
"They protected us, they were the patriots," Elvira Ablosimova said. "They had a little riot - not a big one - and attracted attention (to the issue)."
Alla Vasyanova, a mother of three who lives in the area, told reporters that the police are more interested in collecting bribes than enforcing the law.
"They arrested a (migrant) guy in my building - no papers, nothing," Vasyanova said. "He gave them some money, and goodbye. It's just a feeding trough. The politicians aren't on our side."
While there have always been some tensions between ethnic Russians and those from the predominately Muslim Caucasus region they have exploded into violence lately as some blame a lagging economy on the migrants, according to the Associated Press.
Raids such as the one that occurred on Monday are not uncommon in Russia but the events of the past two days have caused activists such as Mukhamad Amin, head of the Federation of Migrants of Russia, to warn migrants to be careful, according to Reuters.
"The nationalists are pursuing their political goals," Amin said. "This is clearly very dangerous. We are warning migrants to be careful for now in crowded areas and on public transportation."
