Former Russian cosmonaut from Caucasus beaten up by police

Agence France Presse — English
September 10, 2004 Friday 2:18 PM GMT

MOSCOW Sept 10 — A former cosmonaut from the Caucasus republic of
Dagestan was beaten up in Moscow by police in an apparently racially
motivated attack, Moscow Echo radio reported on Friday.

The incident happened when police checked the papers of Magomed
Tolboyev, who holds the title of a Hero of Russia, in the subway in
the southwest of the city.

Taking offence at his appearance and Chechen-sounding name, the two
police proceeded to beat up the one-time test pilot and verbally
abuse him.

“Get out of here, darky, and tell this to your countrymen or else
we shall do them in in the same way,” the officers said. Police have
opened an inquiry.

Tolboyev, who was a cosmonaut in the 1990s but never made it into
space, was not able to defend himself and suffered injuries to
his spine.

The incident raises further concerns about the risk of
racially-motivated attacks in the Russian capital after the school
hostage tragedy in the southern Russian town of Beslan, which was
blamed on rebels from the Caucasus republics of Ingushetia and
Chechnya.

Earlier this week one person was killed and two injured when a group of
young skinheads set fire to and gutted Armenian and Azeri restaurants
in the Urals city of Ykaterinburg.