"Glory to Russia?"

On 25 May 2006 19-year-old Artur Sardaryan was murdered in a commuter train. According to witnesses, the crime was committed by a group of young people, chanting “Glory to Russia!” and nationalistic slogans. News of the murder was only made public on 29 May. According to the news agency REGNUM, Artur was returning home to the Moscow Region town of Pushkino.

After the attack the murders, of whom there were at least two, stopped the train using the emergency signal, and fled.

The ambulance did not arrive in time and Artur Sardaryan died from the stab wounds inflicted at the scene of the crime. Approximately 20 passengers travelling in the same carriage witnessed the crime. However nobody came to his assistance, the newspaper "Век".stresses.

The transport prosecutor of the Yaroslavsky line of the Russian Railways has launched a criminal case under Point “l”, Article 105 § 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (murder committed by  a group of people and motivated by ethnic hatred), the agency "Новости" reports.

The lawyer for the murdered teenager’s family, Simon Tsaturyan, explains that Artur was stabbed with a knife from behind in a somatic artery, and then another 5 days in the chest in the area around the heart. He adds that the victim had Russian citizenship, was born in 1987 and had lived in Baku under 1989 when the family had moved to Moscow because of the conflict in Azerbaijan.

The police have prepared images of the murderers from witnesses’ descriptions, the newspaper "Труд" reports.

On Russian television channels there has been no public address from the President of Russia or from other high-ranking officials with regard to a whole series of ethnic hate murders. Leaders of the major religious communities also prefer to keep silent. Do they really not understand what is taking place?