Human rights groups have raised concerns over a surge in racially-motivated violence Russia in recent months, and cite widespread xenophobic attitudes in the country.
Rashid Nurgaliyev said, "We are now seriously concerned over the fast rise in extremism-related crime, driven by racial intolerance."
"Extremists in the cities of Voronezh, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Saratov have attacked and killed foreign students," he said.
Extremist groups on the ministry's watchlist include racist organizations, soccer fans, and well-organized far-left extremist organizations.
About 80% of the extremist groups' members are under 30, and most are based in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Samara and Voronezh regions, according to ministry data. Eight of these organizations pose a real threat to public security, Nurgaliyev said.
The minister earlier said that youth extremist groups have become more aggressive and better organized, and that some are influenced by criminal organizations.
A recent string of attacks on foreign students has cast a shadow over Voronezh, about 310 miles south of Moscow, which has traditionally been a popular destination for foreign undergraduates.
St. Petersburg has also been a focus of unwelcome attention over neo-Nazi attacks and killings, including the murder of a student from Senegal in April and the stabbing of a nine-year-old girl of mixed Russian-African origin in early 2006. A Vietnamese student was stabbed in October 2004 in the city by a group of drunk teenagers.
Ella Pamfilova, the head of the presidential council on civil society institutions and human rights, said laws should be toughened to eliminate legal loopholes, through which race-hate crimes are registered as 'hooliganism', or no criminal cases are opened at all.
President Vladimir Putin has said that the rise in race-hate crime is a disgrace, and has demanded that the police take radical measures to improve the situation.
