Police in St. Petersburg reported that an unapproved nationalist rally was prevented on Saturday with over 20 people detained. The arrested men “did not follow repeated orders of police officers,” a local police representative told Russian media.

      The rally followed Saturday’s shootout in which two local men were wounded and hospitalized, police said. One of the Russian TV channels reported that the shootout was triggered by a massive fight between two groups of young men. According to ultra-nationalist activist Nikolai Bondarik, the shooters were Muslim natives of Russia’s North Caucasus who provoked the violence and yelled “Allah Akbar!” (Allah is great).

      He announced the rally against “ethnic terror” in a message on a Russian popular social network and said it was supposed to start at 6 p.m. local time in the southeastern Nevsky district of Russia’s second-largest city. The rally was not submitted to the local authorities' approval, that is why the police prevented it and arrested several instigators.

      Massive migration of non-Slavic people to Russia has become a reason for many cross-cultural conflicts in the country in recent years. Russian nationalists, including openly neo-Nazi groups, are very active opposion groups (though their activity is considered extremist according to Russian law) which declare their aim to fight against domination of Muslim natives of Russia’s North Caucasus region and ex-Soviet Central Asia in central Russia.