Russian court sentences 3 neo-Nazi pagans to up to 21 years in jail for killings and bombings

3 Russian neo-Nazis sentenced for hate killings

MOSCOW — A Russian court has handed long sentences to three ultranationalists convicted of hate killings and bombings.

The Moscow City Court said in a statement Wednesday that the three were in a militant neo-pagan cult and preyed on labor migrants from ex-Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus.

It said between 2008 and 2009 they killed 10 people and arranged bombings at a Russian Orthodox church, a McDonald’s restaurant and a railway station that left one woman wounded.

It said two of the defendants were underage and received sentences of between 8 and 9 years. The third defendant was over 18 at the time of the murders and got a 21-year sentence.

Ultranationalist, neo-Nazi and neo-pagan groups mushroomed in Russia after the Soviet collapse.