A journalist from Jordan has been hospitalized after he was attacked and beaten up by unknown suspects in Moscow downtown, a spokesman for Moscow police said Saturday.

He said the assault on the journalist was apparently racially motivated as the suspects did not take anything from the Jordanian citizen adding that police has been investigating other versions of the incident as well.

Routine attacks by skinheads and youth gangs on foreigners and people with non-Slavic features have been reported across Russia in recent years. But authorities have been generally reluctant to treat the attacks as race-hate crimes, portraying them instead as acts of hooliganism.
sections: Accidents, Region News
areas: Central region