The court also sentenced Dmitry Ufimtsev, 23, who confessed to committing five murders, to 22 years in prison. Ufimtsev and Krivets formed a two-person gang in October 2007. Within the course of three months, they killed 15 people, most of whom included migrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus.
The two said they identified their victims according to their physical appearance, specifically targeting “foreigners” and assaulting them with knives. One such victim, for example, was an elderly violinist who played for small change near a metro station in Moscow, the Gazeta daily reported. Krivets admitted to stabbing the man and leaving him to die for “being Jewish.”
This is only the third time that a man has received a life sentence for hate killings in Russia. Two previous life sentences were handed to Nikolay Korolev in 2008, for a bombing that killed 14 people, and Aleksandr Degtyarev in 2010 for murdering four people.
Ufimtsev and Krivets have refused requests to speak to the press. Their lawyers have 10 days to appeal the verdict from the moment they receive a written copy of it.
Hate crimes have seen a recent rise in Russia. The Ministry of Interior has stated that 548 such crimes were committed in 2009, up by more than 50% from 2007. Ultra-nationalist gangs have also mushroomed, with more than 150 of them currently operating throughout Russia.
RT News
