A black actor who appeared in popular Soviet films has died in the northern Russian city of Saint Petersburg after being brutally beaten in what is suspected to have been a racist attack, officials said yesterday.
Tito Romalio, 59, died on May 11 in Alexandrovskaya Hospital after being beaten by a 43-year-old Russian in a street in the north of the city following a conflict," local police said. "A suspect was arrested."
Russian media, citing anonymous police sources, reported that the attacker, identified as Khamzya Yenikeyev, beat the actor because of racist hatred.
Romalio, who was of Brazilian descent, started his acting career as a child and had minor roles in such popular Soviet films as Artyom's Adventures, 1956, and The Amphibian Man, 1962.
The actor often encountered difficulties with racism, said the Novaya Ivestia newspaper, citing his friends.
"Tito had a bitter fate," his friend Yelena Yakhontova told the daily.
"In Russia, he always lived with the brand of a 'darkie' and humiliated himself to find work.
"He had to get by somehow by working as a character actor."
Africans and other non-whites living in Russia are frequently attacked by neo-Nazi gangs, though the authorities have claimed some success in reducing violent hate crimes of late.
A total of 74 people were killed in racist attacks in Russia last year, a drop from the 120 killed in 2008.
The figures were collated by the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, a respected group that tracks hate crimes.
Source: Time Live
racist are fuckking crazy a lengedary actor like kill for no reason
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