ASSAILANTS ATTACK ARMENIANS, UZBEKS, KAZAKH MAN IN 3 SEPARATE INCIDENTS IN MOSCOW

AP Worldstream
Jul 02, 2006

Assailants stabbed two ethnic Armenian students, a Kazakh student
and two Uzbeks in three separate incidents in Moscow, Russian news
reports said Sunday.

It was unclear whether any of the attacks would be classified as hate
crimes or were at all connected. But they all occurred amid growing
fears of racism and xenophobia and a sharp uptick in skinhead activity
in Russia.

Two Armenian teenagers were stabbed during a fight on a subway platform
around 5 p.m. (1300 GMT) Saturday, Interfax reported. The two were
hospitalized with various stab wounds; the attackers fled the scene.

The attack was being investigated as "hooliganism, " city prosecutors’
spokesman Sergei Marchenko was quoted by RIA-Novosti as saying.

Meanwhile, a Kazakh man studying at Moscow’s Military Engineering
Academy was attacked by a group of 10 teenagers, including four women,
Interfax said. He was also hospitalized and was reportedly in stable
condition.

Also Saturday, two Uzbek citizens were hospitalized with multiple stab
wounds after being attacked in southwestern district of the Russian
capital, Interfax said. The two were hospitalized in serious condition,
police officials said.

City police officials could not be reached to confirm the reports or
comment on whether they were connected.

Russia has seen a wave of xenophobia and hate crimes in recent years,
with hundreds of attacks reported, including many on dark-skinned
immigrants from former Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus Mountains
region.

Rights activists say hate groups are emboldened by authorities’
mild approach to prosecuting hate crimes, and say that neo-Nazi and
extremist literature is sold freely.

Two ethnic Armenian teenagers were fatally stabbed in the Moscow
region this spring in what Armenian officials called blatant examples
of hate crimes in Russia.