The story that began on the night of September 10 with a series of teenage attacks on Uzbek citizens in Vladivostok has continued. Now the police reports describe the opposite situation: the victims are Russian minors.
According to Vladivostok’s Interior Ministry, the incident took place in the city’s Frunzensky district. Three 14-year-old boys were in a café inside a shopping mall on Okeansky Avenue when a security guard from a nearby store approached them. He claimed they were suspected of theft and invited them to a staff room to check surveillance camera footage.
When the teenagers entered the room, two men were waiting inside. Investigators established that they were natives of “one of the former Soviet republics,” aged 20 and 25 (a still from the video at the top of the article). They attacked the minors and inflicted bodily injuries. The teenagers were also forced to apologize on camera.
The attackers have been detained, and police are conducting an investigation. A criminal case has been opened against the two migrants for unlawful deprivation of liberty of three 14-year-old boys and threats of murder (Article 127, Part 2 “a, c, e, g” and Article 119 of the Russian Criminal Code). The case of the beaten teenagers in Vladivostok has been placed under the personal supervision of Russia’s Investigative Committee chairman Alexander Bastrykin.
This episode occurred on September 16, around the same time the Primorye Investigative Committee opened a case of hooliganism against a group of teenagers who had attacked migrants. Those involved were 15-year-old residents of Vladivostok acting under the influence of alcohol. They beat Uzbek citizens, sprayed gas canisters, and damaged property.
Initially, one suspect was detained. Now police have confirmed the arrest of a second teenager, also born in 2010. Both minors have been handed over to investigative authorities. The search for the remaining participants continues.
The conflict has already gone beyond a local incident. The Consulate General of Uzbekistan in Vladivostok officially confirmed that its citizens were among the victims. In Uzbekistan, social media users are actively discussing the events, comparing the rise of violence and xenophobia in Russia with historical examples of politically encouraged hatred.
Now, with Russian minors themselves becoming victims of migrant aggression in response to earlier teenage attacks, the situation has reached a new level of tension. Police promise to “make a lawful and justified decision,” but trust in the system — both among migrants and local residents — continues to erode.
For decades, Russia has built its economy on attracting labor from Central Asia but has failed to guarantee the safety of either migrants or local teenagers. Vladivostok has become an example of how long-suppressed and unresolved contradictions spill over into street clashes, leaving no one feeling safe.