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.
