Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is demanding that Russia
immediately investigate the killing of a Ukrainian man in Moscow that has
signs of a hate crime.
On Feb. 14 a group of 21 people, ages 15-21, beat a man on the
platform of Silikatnaya train station in Moscow. The man was killed a week later.
He was identified as Roman Muzychenko, 37, a Ukrainian
citizen. The crime was reported by Russian media only on March 16.
Russian tabloid LifeNews wrote, citing police, that the
attackers might have mistaken Muzychenko for a native of Tajikistan, and
attacked him out of ethnic hatred.
In a published street camera video of the incident a gang of
young people runs up to the man standing on the edge of a train platform and
starts beating him, while people around pass by. The incident took place around
3 p.m.
Three suspects were arrested on the day of the attack but
than released. Two of them were put under home arrest, according to Russian
Investigative Committee. All are 16 years old. Police is now searching for
other attackers.
Investigators allege that the same gang has beaten another
man “of non-Slavic appearance” on the same day at the Chekhov station in
Moscow. The man survived but
needed medical treatment.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered Ukraine’s
origin of the victim the reason that instigated the attack. It said on March 19
that the expressions of intolerance toward Ukrainians are becoming more and
more frequent in Russia.
“Anti-Ukrainian moods that are actively fueled by Russian
media have become everyday realities of Russian life,” says the ministry’s
statement from March 19. “Spreading of such moods creates a threat for
personal safety of Ukrainians.”
According to the Russian analytical center Sova, at least 10
people were victims of the attacks inspired by xenophobia and nathionalism in
Russia in 2015. Two of them died.
Kyiv Post staff writer Victoria Petrenko can be reached at [email protected]
