Last update - 00:00 22/09/2006
Attackers hurl stones at synagogue in Russia's far east
By The Associated Press
Unidentified attackers on Friday hurled stones at a synagogue in a fareastern Russian city, shattering windows but hurting no one, officials said.
The pre-dawn attack on the synagogue in Khabarovsk, a city of 580,000 on the border with China, was the latest sign of rising xenophobia and anti-Semitism in Russia. It came ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins at sundown Friday.
The regional department of the Interior Ministry said the attack occurred in the pre-dawn hours Friday when the synagogue was empty. A criminal investigation was launched.
Last summer, unidentified attackers spilled gasoline at the synagogue's entrance and set it on fire. No one was hurt in that incident and there was no damage to the building. Police have failed to track down the perpetrators, the Interior Ministry's regional department said.
NTV television reported Friday that unknown assailants also hurled stones at a synagogue in the Volga River city of Astrakhan in southern Russia. No one was hurt in the attack late Thursday, it said.
Russia has seen a marked rise in xenophobia and hate crimes in recent years that rights groups say is fueled in part by the authorities' reluctance to crack down on hate crimes and tackle growing nationalism.
In an apparent response to such criticism, a man who burst into a Moscow synagogue last January and stabbed nine people with a hunting knife was sentenced to 16 years in prison last week.
President Vladimir Putin congratulated Russia's Jews on the Jewish New Year in a message issued Friday, saying that "for many ages, Jewish values have helped noble goals of uniting people and strengthening trust and mutual understanding between them."
"I'm convinced that Russia's Jews will continue to help the successful development of a dialogue between different ethnic groups and religions in our country," the presidential press service quoted Putin as saying.
The Kremlin statement avoided any reference to xenophobia or anti-Semitic outbursts in Russia.