MOSCOW, December 23 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow...

MOSCOW, December 23 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow police officially rejected media reports on Tuesday that two violinists from a famed Russian orchestra had been attacked by racists, a police spokesman said. A member of the Moscow Virtuosi chamber orchestra, Denis Shulgin, was hospitalized with a fractured skull and brain concussion after an attack in the Russian capital on Monday. Attackers stole his valuable violin. In a separate incident on Sunday, his colleague Georgy Tsai, an ethnic Korean, was stabbed in the stomach and suffered numerous hand injuries. His bag was stolen during the attack, which occurred near his home. Both men are reported to be in a stable condition. Police are investigating whether the attacks were linked. After the first incident, media said the violinist had been a victim of a race-hate attack. However, the police spokesman Viktor Biryukov dismissed the reports saying: "We officially deny this information as there no grounds for such allegations." Criminal cases into assault and robbery have been opened, he said. Racially motivated crimes have become common in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Attacks by gangs of youths on foreigners and people with non-Slavic features are a routine occurrence in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as the city of Voronezh, which hosts many foreign university students. Last week, the Moscow City Court sentenced seven young men, convicted of 20 race-hate murders and 12 other attacks, to between six and 20 years in prison. The gang carried out a series of attacks between August 2006 and October 2007 targeted at foreigners and non-Slavic migrants. The suspects filmed some of the attacks and posted them on the Internet.

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Russia"s foreign minister said on Tuesday there was no connection between the ongoing international dispute over Iran"s nuclear program and a delay in launching the country"s first nuclear power plant.

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