Russia- bound students warned of racial violence

Sources said the missive was sent by the UGC at the behest of the Human Resource Development ministry (HRD), which received a note from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) last month. Ministry sources have described it as an unusual matter where the UGC was asked to alert the students in universities about the unfortunate incidents that happened in Russia. MEA, in its note to the HRD ministry, had said that “there had been several incidents of violent attacks on Indian and other foreign students in different parts of Russian Federation by extremist groups.” St Petersburg, MEA told the HRD ministry, accounted for one-third of such attacks, as per records maintained by Russian police authorities. Moscow and Voronezh come next with 25 and 10 per cent respectively.

MEA also said that foreign students, especially those with dark hair, were vulnerable to assault. They also referred to a case pertaining to a VII year student from Mechnikov Medical Academy at St Petersburg where one Nitesh Kumar Singh was stabbed by a group of eight masked men in front of his hostel on September 24 last year.

Earlier, in April last year, another Indian student, a Vth year student from the same medical academy, Kishore Kumar Anjangi, was also attacked in the same area, but he survived.

MEA has assured the Indian Embassy in Moscow and the Consulate General of India in St Petersburg that they had taken up the issue of security for Indian students with the Russian authorities. “They have promised to take action against such groups and adopt necessary measures to provide security to foreign students,” MEA has said.

It added that “there can be no substitute for remaining vigilant and exercising due caution and prudence in one’s movements,” and has therefore, asked the HRD ministry to issue an advisory.