Russia blocks blogs to thwart demos

Russia has blocked access to internet blogs used to organise anti-immigration demonstrations, according to the leader of a nationalist group.

Alexei Mikhailov said that Action Against Illegal Immigrants (DPNI) had been trying to use the Livejournal website to organise protests against Chechens in the city of Stavropol, but that the government was making it difficult. 

"It is a significant part of our work and the most politically active people read Livejournal and write there," Mikhailov told Reuters. "This group is a priority group."

Mikhailov said that new DPNI information posted to any blog on Livejournal failed to appear.

"I think we should organise a protest but in Stavropol everything is under police control," he said.

The Russian intervention follows racial tensions and a rise in extremism within the country.

A Chechen man died in an incident on 24 May in Stavropol, and 10 days later two Russians were killed in what was thought to be a revenge attack.

Hundreds of Russians gathered in the city's main square following the two funerals this week.

This caused fears of the repeat of an incident in September 2006, when a riot sparked by two murders in the town of Kondopoga saw Chechen businesses, homes and cars destroyed.

Rashid Nurgaliev, the Russian interior minister, said that police had used the tactics to put a stop to trouble in the region.

"The situation is under control and will not develop like we saw in Kondopoga," he told newsru.com.