MOSCOW - A reporter for the Russian-language edition of Newsweek said yesterday that he was attacked by nationalist extremists in a Moscow subway station.

Aidar Buribayev said four men with close-cropped hair and black clothing approached him in a subway station just after midnight. One of the men asked if he knew that Russia was for Russians, he said.

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I replied 'Russia isn't only for Russians,' and he hit me and then the fight started, he said in comments televised on NTV.

He was treated for light injuries, then released. Buribayev is not an ethnic Russian, but his background was not immediately clear.

A Moscow police spokesman confirmed the assault had been reported to police, but had no further information.

Russia has seen a marked rise in xenophobia and racism in recent years, with a series of attacks on nonwhite or dark-skinned residents, foreigners and Jews. Last year, 53 people were killed and another 460 injured in apparent hate crimes, according to the Sova human rights center.

Rights groups say authorities do little to combat the crimes.