Cruel and scary: exactly 16 years ago, football fans trashed Manezhnaya Square

Exactly 16 years ago, on June 9, 2002, during the World Cup, Russian fans staged the biggest pogrom on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow (since 1993, of course). Then the authorities of the capital organized live broadcasts and beer sales in the city center, but they forgot to ensure security.

The pogrom occurred during the broadcast of the Russia — Japan match. Ours then lost with a score of 0:1, and the center of Moscow turned into the epicenter of riots, where aggressive fans burned cars, beat policemen and windows in the State Duma, the Moscow Hotel, the Chekhov Theater, the city hall and even in the "Children's World".

The official final statistics of the pogrom on Manezhnaya are frightening. 54 people were injured, one died. Seven cars burned down, and 106 cars were smashed (including three police cars). Publication sports.ru He also gives figures on broken storefronts and public transport: 273 storefronts were smashed, 51 billboards were destroyed, seven bus stops were mutilated, several trolleybuses were damaged.

According to the then head of the Moscow police Department, Vladimir Pronin, he learned about the broadcast of the match on the screens of the city only in the morning of June 9. The police at that time had no mechanisms to assume the possible number of fans that would come to the Arena. According to Kommersant, law enforcement officers assumed that no more than 1,500 people would come, so they were very surprised when more than 8000 fans showed up.

In a special report of the RTR TV channel (we will give it below), it was reported that a real madness was going on on the streets in the center of Moscow — there were ordinary spectators among those who came to Manezhnaya Square — in panic they had to flee en masse, a stampede began. At about the same time, fans turned over an ambulance — the driver and the paramedic on duty were injured.

"Idiots have disgraced the Russian people, they behave like the last cattle," writes user Vladimir Sokolov under the RTR channel story published on YouTube. It is difficult to disagree.

It should be noted that the police eventually managed to catch only 10% of all the fans raging that day. Later, eight people received real prison sentences. At the same time, the Moscow authorities decided not to cancel the next broadcast of the Russia — Belgium match. According to Yuri Luzhkov, the mayor of Moscow at that time, going along with the villains would be a sign of weakness. However, conclusions were still made, and alcohol was no longer sold on Manezhnaya Square, police outfits were strengthened, and all fans underwent a thorough inspection.