Moscow Prosecutors Lack Evidence In Attack On Minister

Zaur Tutov says he was beaten up by a group of skinheads yelling "Russia is for Russians." He was hospitalized with a broken cheekbone, concussion, and bruises.
 
But a spokesman for the Moscow prosecutor's office, Sergei Marchenko, said the attackers were drinking and using crude language. The spokesman said Tutov criticized them and a conflict ensued.
 
The attack comes amid an apparent rise in racially motivated violence in Moscow and other cities. Many attacks target darker-skinned immigrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia.
 
The authorities frequently treat such attacks as random violence or hooliganism.
 
(AP)