Matviyenko: Situation in town of Pugachev falls under criminal law

A criminal situation, which developed in the town of Pugachev in the Saratov Region, should be assessed exclusively in the framework of criminal law, rather than pushed onto an inter-ethnic level, Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko said on Thursday. "I understand all the anguish experienced by the family, who has lost a son, but it is very dangerous that their anguish might be used to flare up the conflict on an inter-ethnic basis," Matviyenko said. The people, who do that, should realize that they have set the Bickford fuse on fire, and that the situation is not merely fraught with an explosion in a particular settlement or a town, but in the whole country - a multinational country with many religious confessions, Matviyenko warned. The existing problem of non-effective migration politics arouses concern of the population, she said. The situation in respect to the migration politics should be improved without delay because the number of crimes, in which migrants are involved, has been growing, Matviyenko said. The Upper House intends to raise this problem once again in autumn "so as to make the authorities in charge take resolute measures, which should yield results," Matviyenko said. Mass protests in this town in Saratov Region on the Volga started after a fight between a 16-year-old Chechen boy and 20-year-old commando Ruslan Marzhanov, who died from stab wounds.