Three Russian Skinheads Found Guilty Of Murder In Nizhny Novgorod

Racist crimes have risen in recent years in Russia

Three skinheads have been found guilty of murder by a court in the western Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.

The three young men from the town of Balakhna were found guilty on May 7 of killing an Uzbek citizen last year. A court official told RFE/RL that the jury classified the murder as a hate crime. The three are to be sentenced in the coming weeks.

Last year a group of skinheads were arrested in Nizhny Novgorod for throwing Molotov cocktails inside the windows of a local police station. They later confessed that the action was to commemorate a Russian neo-Nazi group leader, Maksim Bazylev, also known as "Adolf."

Bazylev was found dead in his cell in a Moscow detention center last year. Police officials said he committed suicide.