Human rights activists: This year 23 people were killed by nationalists

Twenty -three people died this year in Russia as a result of attacks on the basis of xenophobia and radical nationalism, Interfax was told on Saturday in the Human Rights Center of Owl.

“In total, since the beginning of 2010, 23 people were killed from such attacks in Russia and at least 242 were injured,” said Xenophobia in Russia in the Center for Monitoring of Xenophobia.

“According to the level of violence, counting from the beginning of the year, Moscow is still leading with the Moscow Region (11 dead, 94 victims), Petersburg with the Leningrad region (1 killed, 35 wounded) and Nizhny Novgorod (2 dead, 14 wounded). In other cities, the number of victims does not exceed 10 people,” the human rights activists said.

According to the Owl Center, in September, racist attacks were recorded in 39 Russian cities, one died and at least 14 people were injured.

According to human rights activists, in Russia there are tens of thousands of activists of right -winging organizations who attack immigrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus, representatives of youth subcultures and sexual minorities.

At the end of January, the Center "Owl" distributed a report that noted that the number of attacks on the basis of xenophobia in Russia for the first time in recent years began to decrease.

"2009 was the first year in more than six years of history of our observations, when the number of incidents associated with racist and neo -Nazi by motivated violence decreased significantly, although its level remains frighteningly high," the Owl report said. It noted that law enforcement agencies in 2008 and in 2009 liquidated the largest and most aggressive ultra -right groups in the Moscow region.