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Jew stabbed to death in Russia
22 year-old St. Petersburg man found dead by mother minutes after stabbing; friends say murder 'was anti-Semitic'
A Russian Jew has been stabbed to death in northern St. Petersburg, members of the city's Jewish community told Ynetnews.
Dimitri Nikoulinsky, 22, was found dead with knife wounds to his throat by his mother minutes after the assault, his friend said.
Two members of the Jewish community said the attack was "exactly" like other lethal assaults carried out by neo-Nazi groups against foreign students and an anti-fascist activist, and are convinced that the attack was a hate-crime.
A Growing Trend
According to Interfax news agency, report by Russian Federation Council's International Affairs Committee would be submitted to Council of Europe
"Today at ten in the morning, our friend and member of the Jewish community was assaulted by an unknown number of men. They left him with many throat knife wounds," a male friend of Nikoulinsky told Ynetnews by phone.
"His mother found him dead minutes later on the stairs to his apartment," the source added.
Nikoulinsky was a student at St. Petersburg State University, and was in his final year of studying for an MA. He also taught in a local Beit Chabad Yeshiva.
Although he did not wear a kippa, Nikoulinsky did "not look Russian at all, and had a very Jewish look," a female employee of a Russian Jewish organization told Ynetnews.
"We are sure this was a hate crime because we have had a series of hate crimes of the same nature. The men who assaulted Dimitri took nothing from him," Nikoulinsky's friend said.
"I think this was a neo-Nazi crimes," he added.
The female source said Nikoulinsky was "very shy, and from a good Jewish family. There was no personal reason that anyone could have to kill him."
"Two years ago a man was killed in the same way in a central avenue of St. Petersburg," Nikoulinsky's friend said. "The reason he was killed was because he was an anti-fascist activist. After that, two foreign students from Vietnam were murdered, also in the same way. In addition, a girl from Tajikistan, who was 5 years-old, was murdered in an identical manner," the source added.
Both sources said police had been informed, but added that they had lost trust in the police. "They are always working on these cases and nothing ever happens," one source said, adding: "We don't trust them at all."
Nikoulinsky was described by his friend as a "very intelligent and open-minded person. He has never done any harm to anyone. He wasn't political. His only passion was teaching young children, which he did on a full-time basis."
