Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry said Monday it had summoned Russia’s ambassador to demand answers over reports that Moscow police used violence against Kyrgyz nationals during a raid on a bathhouse last week.
Videos posted Saturday by a Kyrgyz lawmaker showed masked men wearing red armbands forcing dozens of half-naked men to crawl and lie face down during a raid on a bath complex in northern Moscow.
Eyewitnesses told Kyrgyz-language media that the masked men beat some patrons, tore up their documents and subjected them to degrading treatment during the five-hour raid Thursday night.
“We just don’t like you,” one of the masked men reportedly said when asked why they were using force, according to a witness.
The pro-Kremlin outlet Tsargrad, without citing sources, reported Monday that the raid followed complaints that the Kyrgyz-born owner of the bathhouse had allegedly barred ethnic Russians from entering.
Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday that those seen in the video were taken to a police station for immigration checks. The following day, Kyrgyzstan’s Labor Ministry said four of the 24 detained Kyrgyz citizens had been deported, while the rest were released.
The foreign ministry said it asked Russian Ambassador Sergei Vakunov in Bishkek to clarify the legal basis for the raid and the use of force.
“We asked to take effective measures to protect the rights of citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic and prevent… damaging the Kyrgyz-Russian relations of alliance and strategic partnership,” the ministry said in a statement.
Russia’s Interior Ministry later denied that Moscow police used unlawful measures when making arrests at the bathhouse.
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