A leading Moscow university ordered its foreign students to remain in their dormitories for the next three days because of fears of ethnic violence before Adolf Hitler's birthday, students said.
Hundreds of students at the prestigious Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy were told to stock up on food and warned they would not be let out of the dormitories through Saturday in an attempt to protect them amid a marked rise in hate crimes
Ethnically motivated violence tends to increase in the days leading up to and after Hitler's birthday on April 20, when some members of ultra nationalist organizations appear in groups, shout slogans and stage attacks on dark-skinned foreign and other non-Slavic looking people.
"It is nice that the university is taking care of us, but on the other hand it's absurd that our freedom is being limited because of some militant groups," said Liah Ganeline, a second-year medical student from Israel.
"In a normal, democratic country the authorities don't obey the interests of these groups, but on the contrary protect people from them," she told The Associated Press by telephone.
Only practicing physicians in training were allowed to leave the building, she said, along with students who had signed a statement saying they were responsible for their own safety and had received approval from university officials.
Full Story: METRO.CO.UK
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