"We are often rebuked for ineffectively dealing with instances of extremism and xenophobia," Vladimir Ustinov said addressing a meeting of the country's prosecutors. "I believe that these rebukes as not entirely unjustified."
According to him, law enforcement agencies only respond to attacks, which is mostly a knee-jerk reaction.
"A case in point is the investigation of crimes in Voronezh, St. Petersburg and Moscow," the prosecutor general said, adding that society itself had yet to develop zero tolerance for xenophobia.
The three cities have witness horrific attacks in recent years. A Peruvian student was killed last year in the Central Russian city of Voronezh in what is thought to have been a racially motivated attack, while a nine-year-old Tajik girl was stabbed to death in St. Petersburg in 2003 and a 20-year-old man wielding a knife recently burst into a synagogue in the capital, where he wounded eight people.
"It is clear to everyone that force alone cannot achieve ethnic harmony. Sensitivity training and multicultural education programs would be of the essence here," Ustinov said.
Earlier, Vladimir Putin said that a rise in crimes linked with ethnic and racial intolerance was shameful.
"The surge in crimes related to xenophobia, and ethnic and racial intolerance is shameful, and has naturally aroused public indignation," the Russian president, addressing the same meeting.
