Two Dead In Alleged Ethnic Clash In Russia

(RFE/RL) PRAGUE, September 2, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The Moscow-based rights group Sova today said that at least two people have been killed in clashes between ethnic Russians and Chechens in the northern city of Kondopoga.

Sova director Aleksandr Vekhorovsky said the deaths occurred earlier in the week when a fight broke out at a Chechen restaurant in Kondopoga, located in Russia's Karelia region.

Kondopoga police have confirmed that two people were killed and several wounded in a fight on August 30.

After the incident, Vekhorovsky said anti-immigrant groups called on Russian nationalists to come to the city.

Vekhorovsky said dozens -- possibly hundreds -- of nationalists came to Kondopoga. On September 1, he says groups of them attacked the Chechen restaurant with metal bars and gasoline bombs and fought with police.