Two members of an ultra nationalist gang in Moscow were convicted on Saturday of a race-hate killing and sentenced to six and eight years in prison, Moscow City Court said.
Eighteen-year-old Georgy Golovanov and 21-year-old Yevgeny Marenchuk were found guilty of killing an Uzbek national at a Moscow railway station in May 2010 as well as five other race-hate attacks on migrants from a number of former Soviet republics including Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan.
Golovanov was sentenced to a six-year jail term while Marenchuk will spend eight years in prison.
Both culprits will serve their terms in a maximum-security prison.
At least 20 people of “non-Slavic appearance” were murdered in racist killings across Russia last year, according to Sova, a rights group that monitors ethnic hatred in the country.
The Interior Ministry said race-hate crimes have grown six-fold since 1995.