Racism overshadows Russian hospitality for foreign students

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2006

MOSCOW (AFP) — The beating of two Mongolian students in Saint Petersburg over the weekend put an ugly stamp on what increasingly resembles an epidemic of racist violence in Russia.

The two needed hospital treatment after coming under attack from a gang of around 10 men Saturday in the metro system, police said.

The incident in Russia's most picturesque city bore the hallmarks of a trend right across the country of unprovoked, often vicious attacks against non-whites -- an embarrassing problem that President Vladimir Putin's government has yet to prove capable of addressing.

Just in the last week Russian media reported on skinheads using iron bars to beat to death two gypsies in the south-western Volgograd region, and the death from his injuries of an...