Riots in Moscow were not pre-planned, say police leaders

So far there is no reason to believe that last Sunday's riots in Moscow's Manezh Square had been pre-planned, said Ivan Golubev, Deputy Interior Minister of Russia on Tuesday.

The deputy minister said that there could have been skinheads among the crowd. However, he said, he has no information on whether or not the instigators used bottles with incendiary mixture. He thinks that the rampaging fans used fire crackers to set fire to the cars.

Ivan Golubev expressed confidence that all the criminal cases would be brought to an end, and the organizers of the riots punished.

He said that almost 200 active participants in the riots had been identified. Fifteen were detained and will shortly be charged of "hooliganism." Golubev also noted that the leadership of the Moscow police department "had drawn the necessary conclusions and that such incidents would not happen again."