Six die in hate crimes in Russia since beginning of year
MOSCOW. July 2 (Interfax) - Six people died in hate crimes in Russia this year, the Sova human rights center told Interfax on Tuesday.
"Six people were killed and no fewer than 76 wounded in 22 regions across Russia in the first half of this year," the center said.
"There were at least two acts of vandalism motivated by hate and neo-Nazi ideology in June. A synagogue in Smolensk and a mosque in Ivanovo were the targets," Sova said. "Some 27 attacks of this kind have occurred since the beginning of the year."
"The biggest attack mounted by the nationalists in June occurred in a geological survey camp in the Voronezh region. The right-wing radicals joined protests against nickel mining on the Yelansky copper and nickel field," Sova said.
Forty people died in Russia due to hate crimes in 2012, Sova reported at the beginning of this year.
An earlier report from Sova claimed that the number of hate crimes had been decreasing in Moscow. The police liquidated the largest and most aggressive ultra-right groups in the Moscow region in 2008-2009, it said.
Sova is a monitor of xenophobia and hate crimes.
