On September 22, the Moscow City Court sentenced a group of ultra-nationalist young people to prison terms for three attempted murders and other crimes committed out of ethnic hatred.
One woman and nine men received punishments ranging from a three-year suspended sentence to 10 years in prison after being convicted of charges including attempted murder, assault, hooliganism and inciting ethnic hatred.
Seven of the defendants attempted to kill nationals of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and China between February and March 2008 in Moscow, according to prosecutors. One of the group’s leaders, Yevgenia Zhikhareva, is also a suspect in a separate criminal case involving a series of explosions and racist murders in Moscow in 2008 and 2009, RIA-Novosti reported. Zhikhareva has said she follows a cult that worships pagan gods. She was sentenced to eight years in prison.
