Moscow’s alternative teens have made a downtown nightlife district their weekend hangout. Drunken fights are driving customers away — and police are targeting the teenagers for how they dress.

In the summer of 2025, media outlets first reported on the “nefors” of Kitay-Gorod — teenagers in unusual clothes who hang out in this central Moscow neighborhood. Around the same time, local café and bar owners noticed they were getting fewer customers: The rowdy young members of alternative subcultures had scared them off. A year later, police began rounding up the “nefors,” handling teenagers roughly as they detained them, sometimes without explanation. Police go mainly by how they look. Sometimes, though, there are grounds for police intervention: The “nefors” get drunk, shout, and fight,