Thousands of Russian nationalists have marked National Unity Day with a rally in Moscow demanding that immigrants be sent back to their own countries.

About 7,000 nationalists marched in the capital Friday, waving Czarist flags and chanting anti-immigrant slogans such as “Russia for Russians” and “Migrants Today, Occupiers Tomorrow.”

The officially sanctioned rally was allowed in only one suburb far from Moscow's center.

National Unity Day has been celebrated since 2005, when then-president Vladimir Putin created the holiday to celebrate the defeat of Polish invaders in 1612. It replaced an annual Soviet commemoration of the 1917 revolution.

Last week, a Russian court sentenced six Muslim migrants from the North Caucasus to between five and 20 years in prison for killing an ethnic Russian football fan last year.

Yegor Sviridov, a fan of the Spartak football team, was shot dead during a brawl in Moscow. His death sparked large nationalist rallies in several Russian cities, as nationalist groups often overlap with football team support groups.

President Dmitry Medvedev warned at the time that ethnic violence threatens the country's stability and urged police to curb such clashes.

Ethnic violence has been on the rise in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.