15:53, 24 April 2004

Armenian NGOs indignant at skinheads' actions in Russia

Several Armenian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) issued a statement on April 23 denouncing manifestations of chauvinism in Russia. In the statement addressed to the Russian Embassy and the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the NGOs expressed their indignation at the skinheads' attack on an Armenian boy in Kostroma, whom they tried to burn.

"We express our regret and indignation at the fact that no due tough response is given to such actions by the Russian law-enforcement agencies and authorities," reads the statement. The NGOs raised their concern that the law-enforcement agencies often rated crimes nationalistic by nature as common ones. "We are convinced it is not difficult for the Russian state to look into the activity of the so called skinhead groups in a very short space of time and to cut this activity short by radical means. If it does not happen and fascists' actions keep on expanding, we have to make up a conclusion that the corresponding agencies in the neighboring friendly country have no desire to struggle against such phenomena shameless for any country," reads the statement.

Source: Rosbalt News Agency