RUSSIA: An Afghan doctor died in a Moscow hospital yesterday, a week after being beaten into a coma by skinheads who are rapidly gaining numbers and notoriety across Russia, writes Daniel McLaughlin in Moscow
Mr Abdul Karim Vasi (27), who had a Russian wife and three-month-old daughter, died of a brain haemorrhage the same day an opinion poll showed that almost 40 per cent of Russians aged 16 to 26 supported extreme nationalist groups.
"We would like President Vladimir Putin and the mayor of Moscow to know about this so they could take measures to protect foreigners and non-Russian citizens of Russia," said another Afghan, Mr Nuriyar Abdullah, of the murder of his friend.
Citing the results of the survey conducted among 1,500 young Russians on behalf of the ministry of education, Izvestia newspaper reported that 10 per cent of those aged 16 to 19 said they would take part in "nationalist pogroms" if paid to do so.
It is the latest study to support fears of a rising tide of nationalism in Russia, which is often encouraged by popular politicians.
In last December's parliamentary elections, nationalist parties garnered one in five votes, while liberals were trounced by supporters of Mr Putin who campaigned on a patriotism and law-and-order platform.
Mr Putin, a former KGB colonel, periodically condemns racist attacks, particularly around April 20th, the birthday of Adolf Hitler and an annual spark for a surge in skinhead violence.
But sociologists say Mr Putin's appeals to Russian pride and support for the war in Chechnya encourage nationalist sentiment in a vast, poor country where people were taught to be wary of foreigners during more than 70 years of Soviet rule.
Chechens and other people from the Caucasus region and Central Asia are regularly targeted by skinheads, and by police whom human rights groups accuse of extorting money.
But even a Russian society largely inured to violence was shocked by the stabbing of eight-year-old Tajik girl Khursheda Sultanova in the doorway to her St Petersburg home last month, by skinheads who chanted "Russia for the Russians".
Skinheads also knifed to death student Amaru Antonio Lima, from Guineau-Bissau, in the southern town of Voronezh last month. Seven other foreign students have been murdered there in the last five years.