The Vietnamese student, Vu An Tuan, was stabbed to death in October 2004 in St. Petersburg by a group of drunken teenagers out of alleged racist motives.
The court acquitted all 17 people in the case of murder charges, but gave two people two and a half and three years in prison for instigation of race hate, and three and a half years for another man convicted of two robberies.
Earlier in October, the jury found nine people guilty in the case on charges of attacking foreign nationals, but not of killing Vu An Tuan. The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry condemned the acquittals at the time.
"We deeply regret that the criminals who killed Vu An Tuan have not been named and have not yet received their due punishment," Le Dung, a spokesman for the ministry, said.
Russia experienced a wave of attacks on non-white foreigners this year, particularly in St. Petersburg, where an Indian student was stabbed to death and a Sudanese national attacked in September.
