MANEZH PLAZA, under the walls of the Kremlin, is a symbolic place in Russian politics. In the late 1980s, thousands demonstrated there against the injustices of the crumbling communist system. But this past weekend, the square saw an ugly scene of rioting nationalist thugs played out. The tacky fountains and underground shopping malls that epitomise the oil-fuelled consumption of today's Russia can no longer disguise an inherent instability and a growing sense of injustice among different social groups.



The pogroms were sparked by the killing of Yegor Sviridov, a football fan, on December 6th, by a man from Russia's north Caucasus. Several of the men initially detained for the murder—although not the prime suspect—were inexplicably (some say for a bribe) later released by the police, infuriating Mr Sviridov's friends. Inevitably their protest turned racist, and the mob turned on people from the north Caucausus, who are formally Russian citizens but have long ceased to be treated as such.



Several thousand football fans and right-wing radicals shouting “Russia for the Russians” clashed with riot police, pelting them with heavy objects. A few brave policemen tried to shelter several swarthy-looking men from the wrath of the neo-fascists. After an appeal from the head of the Moscow police, the rioters were pushed underground into metro stations, where they proceeded to attack anyone who did not look ethnically Russian.



The riots exposed the fragility of the Russian political system, as well as the Kremlin's impotence. The riot police may be able to disperse peaceful demonstrations, but they appear to be less effective when confronted by an aggressive nationalist crowd, whose views many of them share.



For the Kremlin, it is business as usual. A day before the rioting Vladimir Putin, the prime minister and "alpha dog" of Russian politics, was in St Petersburg, crooning "Blueberry Hill" and performing a Soviet-era homage to the motherland.



But after ten years of consolidating political power and installing “stability”, the Kremlin is struggling to keep a lid on violence. Corruption is undermining the foundation of the state. The day after the pogroms, several migrant workers in Moscow were attacked and a Kyrgyz man murdered by a group of 15 people.