Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the murder of Spartak fan Yegor Sviridov is a tragedy and an attack on the whole community of Russia’s soccer fans.
“You should treat it as an attack against all of you, regardless of the place of residence, ethnicity or religion. Muscovite Yegor Sviridov was killed. It’s a big tragedy,” Putin stated at a meeting with fan clubs’ representatives on Tuesday.
The premier and the participants in the meeting observed a minute of silence in memory of Yegor Sviridov.
Putin also said he was bewildered at why Sviridov’s killer happened to be in Moscow. A year ago, he was convicted for a crime.
“If you don’t know, the person guilty of his (Sviridov’s) murder has served jail terms twice: once for hooliganism and infliction of grave bodily harm and a second time for drugs. He was convicted in 2009. It’s not clear how he found himself in Moscow as early as 2010 to commit the murder,” the prime minister said.
He reminded that soccer fans sometimes “have it out emotionally.” It might be understood if it were done within common sense and law. The recent tragedy affected all your, to put it more precisely - our community because one of fan club members died at the hand of a hardened criminal, he said.
Putin said he learnt about a meeting between representatives of soccer club fans on Monday, and amended his schedule in order to address them.
He said he was motivated by the concern that the immunity to nationalism and xenophobia might be weakening, which shows at stadiums.
Now that the whole world is open, different teams have players from different countries. “The country that isolates itself, comes to nought,” he said, “an open country cannot be nationalistic.”
“Each has his small Motherland, we’re proud of it. I wouldn’t give ten kopecks for the health of the person from central Russia, who displays impoliteness towards the Koran in a North Caucasus republic. But people from the North Caucasus, while coming to other regions, should have respect for the local culture, customs and laws, too,” Putin underlined.
“It is only this way, by respecting each other, that we’ll be using the advantages of our common Motherland, our diversity,” the premier underlined.
In his opinion, Russia’s advantage is its ethnic diversity. “Our peoples have developed a certain culture of relationship and respect for each other. It’s always been our strong point,” he said.
At the same time, he acknowledged that ethnic diversity was fraught with ethnic conflicts. “But if these riches, this cultural diversity is managed correctly, it’s always a tremendous advantage,” Putin underlined.