It accused France of carrying out “discriminatory and indiscriminate measures against Russian citizens”.
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But France has hit back with Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault vowing that the arrested fans would be treated fairly.
“You probably saw the outrageous scenes on television of them trampling on the Russian flag and screaming insults directed at the Russian leadership and leading Russian athletes”, he said. At the end of the day, they needed three points more than we did.
UEFA said on Thursday it regretted the unrest on the streets of Lille overnight on the eve of the Euro 2016 soccer match between England and Wales, but it stopped short of taking any action to punish fan violence.
Meanwhile, French authorities have started deporting Russian fans following the incident.
French police “demanded that they get off the bus for document and identification checks”, Lavrov told parliament.
“Most people (in Russia) think the Russians were right” in Saturday’s fighting, said Evgeny Dzichkovsky, a columnist for Russia’s Sovetsky Sport newspaper.
As the initial tweet shows, that’s not to say that Russian fans hadn’t already goaded them, but it’s hard to say that chants of “Fuck off Russia, we’re England and Wales”, are anything but provocative.
After running confrontations between England fans and French riot police last night, Lille is a far calmer place this morning.
Sporadic violence has since moved to northern France, where Russian Federation played Slovakia on Wednesday and England played Wales on Thursday.
Clashes erupted but were quickly quelled by riot squads behind shields, who fired tear gas and flash bombs.
Security was heavy, especially at the train station with many fans arriving on trains from Lille.
As the match is sure to be one big display of rivalry, fans can expect a great display of football, and breathtaking skills.
Police used pepper spray against an England fan who ran towards them, as fights appeared to break out among Three Lions supporters.
It’s unclear exactly what fueled the violence, though reports say England fans are predominately to blame.
Fans were in good voice and the atmosphere was rowdy but peaceful, with officers seen posing for photos with fans, in contrast to the previous night when police charged at supporters.
UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, warned England and Russian Federation that their teams were facing disqualification if their fans continued to behave poorly, after dozens of people were injured, some badly, in ugly brawls in Marseille on the weekend.
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Police had to protect several thousand French soccer fans who had watched their team in an official fan zone set up for soccer lovers in each host city.
