Moscow police to crack down on ethnic crime groups

Moscow, May 2 (UNI) Moscow police are planning to launch a crack down on criminal groups organised on the basis of ethnic lines, in the Russian capital.

A source in the law enforcement department today told the Interfax news agency that the crack down was being planned in response to last Friday's murder of two police officers, allegedly by members of the so-called Georgian criminal group.

The police officers came under fire from an automatic weapon as they entered an apartment in southern Moscow. The gunmen escaped and the city police launched a hunt to apprehend them.

According to the source "The toughest measures will be taken, including large-scale checks of venues popular among representatives of such ethnic groups, " adding that " Detentions will be made. The operation will continue until the murderers are tracked down." Several ethnic crime groups, including Georgian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, are reported to be active in the city.

Recently there has been a series of deadly attacks on expatriates by Russian skinheads in several cities, including Moscow, St Petersburg, Voronezh and Volgograd.

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