Russia summons French ambassador over Euro 2016 fan arrests

Russia on Wednesday summoned France’s ambassador to protest over the arrest of Russian supporters at the Euro 2016 football tournament. "On June 15, French ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert was invited to the Russian Foreign Ministry to hear a statement regarding Tuesday’s detention of a group of Russian fans on the way from Marseille to Lille for another match of the UEFA Euro 2016 Football Cup Finals featuring the Russian team," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by Russian (Itar tass) news agency.

    "The French diplomat’s attention was drawn to the discriminatory and non-selective nature of the measures taken against Russian citizens - by the decision of the Marseille prosecutor all the 43 people, including 3 drivers have been detained for 48 hours for investigative activities." "It was an absolutely unacceptable incident when a bus with more than 40 Russian fans was stopped by police," Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said.

    On Tuesday, UEFA announced its decision to fine the Russian Football Union (RFU) 150,000 euros ($168,200) over Russian football fans’ misconduct during their national team’s opening match of the 2016 Euro Cup against England last week in Marseille.

    The European governing body of football also issued a suspended disqualification for the Russian team, which means that the national squad would be disqualified from the major European football tournament in case of the repeated instance of Russian fans misconduct.

Source: QNA