Kyrgyzstan advised its citizens not to travel to Russia

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan called on citizens of the republic to refrain from unnecessary trips to Russia. Bakyt Kadyrov, deputy head of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said this in an interview with Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz service. According to the official, after the attack on the Crocus City Hall concert hall in the Moscow region on March 22, the Russian special services strengthened counter-terrorist measures and tightened checks at the borders. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recommends postponing trips to Russia while heightened security measures are in place.

The Tajik diaspora in Russia strongly advises Tajiks in the country to exercise caution, fearing the rise of xenophobic crimes. The publication “Baza” reports that the heads of Tajik communities have prepared recommendations for fellow citizens not to attend mass events and not to leave the house in the evenings. Also, according to “Baza” sources, a number of employers asked their employees – citizens of Tajikistan to submit up-to-date personal data, including their address.

Several incidents of xenophobic aggression have already been reported by the Tajik service of Radio Liberty. In the city of Blagoveshchensk, Amur Region, unknown persons set fire to a trade pavilion belonging to migrants – as the mayor of the city, Oleg Imaev, said, “obviously, on national grounds.” In Kaluga, a group of unknown persons beat three citizens of Tajikistan on the street, one of them was hospitalized. There are reports from various regions of Russia that customers are refusing the services of taxi drivers of Tajik nationality. They demand to cancel the order if they find out that the driver is a Tajik or a native of Tajikistan.

The governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, said at a meeting on law enforcement that the places of residence of labor migrants in the city would be “taken under special control”, he did not specify what this meant. Migrants are actively checked in other regions of Russia as well. Nizhnevartovsk police detained 14 foreigners in one of the city’s hostels, reports 72.ru. And in the Primorsky Krai, the authorities have announced a tightening of control over migrants, for this they are using, among other things, fighters from the “Tiger Law and Order” unit.

• On the evening of Friday, March 22, several people in camouflage uniforms opened fire from machine guns in a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow (administratively, this is the Moscow suburb of Krasnogorsk). Then there was an explosion and a huge fire started. As a result of the terrorist attack, according to the latest data, 137 people died, including three children. At least 180 people were injured.
• Four citizens of Tajikistan were detained and arrested on suspicion of organizing a terrorist attack. Presumably, they are connected with the radical group “Vilayat Khorasan” – the Afghan division of the international organization “Islamic State”, recognized as a terrorist organization in many countries of the world.