Russian police have arrested a gang of skinheads suspected of killing at least 20 people in racially motivated murder cases, RIA Novosti news agency reported Tuesday.
"During the investigation into murders of people from Central Asia and the Caucasus, police officers detained six Moscow residents, aged 17-20, who claimed they belonged to a local skinhead group," a police source was quoted as saying.
The suspects are accused of killing people with 'non-Slavic features' in Moscow and its surrounding areas.
Police also seized nationalist literature promoting racial hatred in the suspects' apartments, the agency said.
Dozens of people are killed or hurt in xenophobic hate crimes in Russia every year. The government has pledged to eliminate such crimes.
More than 70 people have been killed in racial violence in Russia so far this year, which is more than in the whole of 2007, and another 120 were injured, Itar-Tass reported last week.
Human rights activists say skinheads and activists of other radical nationalist organizations in Russia number 70,000. People from the Caucasus and Central Asia and representatives of youth subcultures and sexual minorities are their most frequent targets.
Source: Xinhua
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