23 years for racist attacks

Nine people convicted of the ethnically motivated murder of Central Asian migrants were jailed for up to 23 years by a Moscow court yesterday.

The trial of the alleged members of a neo-Nazi group dubbed the "White Wolves" underscored the persistence of racist crimes by extreme nationalists and white supremacists in Russia.

A Moscow City Court jury convicted the nine this month of involvement in five murders and one attempted murder.

The only minor among those convicted was sentenced to 6 years in a juvenile prison.

The others were jailed for terms ranging from seven to 23 years.