The authorities in St. Petersburg announced Wednesday that a loosely organized extremist group had committed a string of racially motivated killings that has shocked Russia, including the murder of an African student in April and that of a prominent expert on hate crimes nearly two years ago.
The authorities said they had broken up the group after the recent arrests of five of its members. Two others appeared to have been arrested earlier on separate charges, while an eighth was shot and killed as the police tried to arrest him late last Thursday. Full Story
