Vietnam calls for urgent Russian investigation into murder

The investigation into the murder of a Vietnamese student last week in Moscow by Russian agencies should be treated as a matter of urgency, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said Monday.

"We condemn this barbarous act," he said of Tang Quoc Binh's killing on Friday night.

Dung called for the Russian government to ensure the security of Vietnamese students and other foreigners living there.

The Vietnamese Embassy in Moscow, meanwhile, together with Binh's family and Russian authorities, is preparing for the repatriation of his body, Dung added.

Binh, 21, died early Saturday after being stabbed at a Moscow's subway station.

Local media reported the attackers could have been Russian skinheads. In 2006, 17 skinheads were acquitted of a fatal stabbing of another 20-year-old Vietnamese student, Vu Anh Tuan.

The Russian police have started investigating the murder of two foreigners in Moscow, including Binh, local news agency Ria Novosti reported on Sunday.