RUSSIA MUST TAKE XENOPHOBIA SERIOUSLY – ARMENIAN DIASPORA LEADER

RIA Novosti, Russia
May 31 2006

MOSCOW, May 31 (RIA Novosti) – Russia must develop a comprehensive
approach to fighting xenophobia and race-hate crimes, the president
of the Union of Armenians in Russia said Wednesday.

Extremism and xenophobia in Russia have been in the spotlight following
a wave of race-hate attacks across the country and the publication
of a report by Amnesty International that slammed the government for
not doing enough to combat the problem.

Ara Abramyan said 390 racially motivated attacks had been registered
in Russia in 2005, and that seven Armenians had been killed in the
country this year alone.

“This is not a problem of the Armenian people,” Abramyan said. “It
is a problem of our state, it is our common problem and only through
common efforts can we find a way out of this situation.”

In a murder that shocked the country, Vagan Abramyants, a 17-year-old
student at the Moscow Academy of Management, was stabbed to death on
the platform of Pushkinskaya metro station in the center of Moscow
at about 5 p.m. April 22.

Abramyan said society should reject members of radical nationalist
groups.

“They must know that they do not have a place in the society,” he
said, adding that the society should start an open dialogue with
young people on these sensitive issues.

Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said on May 17 that some 6,000
young people under the age of 18 were involved in extremist activities
in Russia.