Moscow authorities create map of ethnic tension sites

Moscow authorities will create a map showing the main areas of ethnic tension in the city, a Russian government daily reported.

Russia has seen a wave of racially motivated crimes since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Routine attacks by skinheads and gangs of youths on foreigners and people with non-Slavic features are a regular occurrence in Moscow, which hosts many foreign university students, foreign workers and tourists.

In an interview published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Moscow committee for interregional relations and national policy chairman Mikhail Solomentsev said special groups with good knowledge of race-hate hot spots and the necessary measures to take to prevent flare-ups have already been created. These groups include representatives from the police and security services, and culture, education, social and sport departments.

"So far only a rough version of the map is available. When the groups begin to work in full we will be able to update it on-line," Solomentsev said.

He said there are several such sites in the city which need to be taken under control and eliminated. The city does not have any districts similar to China towns where people coming from other countries live together, speaking their own languages and following their own traditions.

Solomentsev also said that a new draft law prepared by the committee proposes tougher punishment for racially or religiously motivated crimes.

In February, Moscow City Court sentenced a group of ultranationalist skinheads, known as the White Wolves, to jail sentences ranging from six to 23 years for a series of race-hate murders.

Russia's reputation abroad has been badly affected by the racial attacks. This month South Korea officially classified Russia as a dangerous place for its nationals to travel to. Seoul issued a temporary travel advisory lasting from March 11 until May 31 after one South Korean student was killed and another injured in separate incidents in Moscow and south Siberia in early March.

The U.S. 2009 Annual Report on Human Rights, published on March 11, said the number of racially or religiously motivated crimes in Russia had declined, but ethnic discrimination is still a matter of concern.

MOSCOW, March 22 (RIA Novosti)