More and More Racially Motivated Crimes in Russia The number of victims of racially motivated crimes is growing in Russia. Human rights defenders talk about an increase in the victims of skinheads. Since the beginning of this year, 80 crimes motivated by racial animosity were committed leading to the death of 14 people. This is twice the number as in the period of January to February 2006. As a correspondent of the �Russian News Service� was informed by the deputy director of the analytical center �Sova�, Galina Kozhevnikova, �Every season we notice a stable growth of such crimes and it isn�t decreasing�. The chief reason for this growth is the absence of adequate counteraction on the side of law enforcement agencies in the face of the actions of radical nationalist groups. According to Kozhevnikova, this year most crimes motivated by nationalistic intolerance occurred in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod. In particular, in Moscow 10 people were killed in 2007 as a result of such crimes and 25 were injured. In Saint Petersburg one person was killed and 17 were injured. According to human rights activists the number of skinheads in Russia is up to 60,000. Usually they attack migrants from the Caucases and Central Asia, as well as adherents of youth sub-culture and sexual minorities. Commenting on the decision of the High Court, which decided on Thursday (March 1st) to ratify the verdict of �not- guilty� passed on the St. Petersburg teenager implicated in the killing of a student from Vietnam, Kozhevnikova said � This is proof of the bad work of the organs of prosecution. We do not know all of the details of the investigation, but it is evident that either the law enforcement agencies cannot catch these people or they cannot gather enough proof against them. Source: Seventh Channel
More and More Racially Motivated Crimes in Russia
As a correspondent of the �Russian News Service� was informed by the deputy director of the analytical center �Sova�, Galina Kozhevnikova, �Every season we notice a stable growth of such crimes and it isn�t decreasing�. The chief reason for this growth is the absence of adequate counteraction on the side of law enforcement agencies in the face of the actions of radical nationalist groups.
According to Kozhevnikova, this year most crimes motivated by nationalistic intolerance occurred in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod. In particular, in Moscow 10 people were killed in 2007 as a result of such crimes and 25 were injured. In Saint Petersburg one person was killed and 17 were injured.
According to human rights activists the number of skinheads in Russia is up to 60,000. Usually they attack migrants from the Caucases and Central Asia, as well as adherents of youth sub-culture and sexual minorities.
Commenting on the decision of the High Court, which decided on Thursday (March 1st) to ratify the verdict of �not- guilty� passed on the St. Petersburg teenager implicated in the killing of a student from Vietnam, Kozhevnikova said � This is proof of the bad work of the organs of prosecution. We do not know all of the details of the investigation, but it is evident that either the law enforcement agencies cannot catch these people or they cannot gather enough proof against them.
Source: Seventh Channel
