Earlier in the day, foreign students met with St. Petersburg's top law-enforcement officials. Vladislav Piotrovsky, the head of St. Petersburg's criminal investigation department, told the students that the murder of the Congolese student had been solved. Piotrovsky also said the homicide had not been race-related.
Unsatisfied with Piotrovsky's answers, about a hundred of the foreign students walked along St. Petersburg's central street, Nevsky Prospekt, to meet with the city's administration officials.
The protesters carried photographs of the Congolese student who died in a hospital after being attacked by unidentified assailants. One of the students held a poster saying: "An Arab Student Was Killed the Day before Yesterday, a Vietnamese Student Yesterday, and an African Student Today. Who Will Be Killed Tomorrow?"
The protesters met with Andrei Maksimov, the deputy chairman of the city's committee for science and education, who also said that the killing had not been race-related and added that security had been heightened at St. Petersburg universities.