By Ekaterina Janashia | 2026-01-09

A fourth-grade classroom became the setting for a targeted killing when a teenager entered a Moscow-region school, asked children about their nationality and stabbed a 10-year-old Tajik boy to death.

The attack took place on the morning of December 16 at Uspenskaya Secondary School in Gorki-2, an affluent suburb west of Moscow. According to Russia's Investigative Committee and multiple Telegram news channels, the victim was Qobiljon Aliyev, a fourth-grade student and citizen of Tajikistan who had lived in Russia for several years.

In the weeks since the killing, Russian authorities have charged the attack as murder and attempted murder but have stopped short of classifying it as a hate crime, despite evidence investigators say points to an extremist motive.

The case has become a touchstone in Central Asia for broader fears that rising xenophobia and online radicalization in Russia are going unaddressed, even as officials avoid publicly acknowledging the victim's nationality.

Premeditated violence

The suspect, identified as 15-year-old ninth-grader Timofey K., entered the school armed with a knife and pepper spray, investigators said.

Witness accounts and leaked video footage from the teenager's own social media show him wearing a T-shirt reading "No Lives Matter" and a helmet bearing multiple extremist slogans, including a quote attributed to US white supremacist Dylann Roof.

Before the stabbing, the teenager recorded himself approaching a group of students and a teacher and asking the children about their nationality and ethnicity.

When a security guard attempted to intervene, the suspect sprayed him with pepper spray and stabbed him in the back, wounding the guard before chasing students through the school, investigators said. He cornered Aliyev on a staircase and stabbed him in the neck, killing the boy.

After the attack, the suspect took a selfie with the victim's body and posted footage of the stabbing to his personal Telegram channel.

While the official charge remains murder, leaked details from the investigation point to an extremist motive. The suspect was reportedly subscribed to neo-Nazi Telegram channels and cited the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooter and Roof as "inspirations."

Footage suggests the attacker was specifically searching for a "dark-haired" teacher or students with non-Slavic appearances before targeting Aliyev.

Growing xenophobia

Human rights observers say the killing occurred amid intensifying anti-migrant sentiment in Russia, particularly toward Central Asian communities.

Tajik political analyst Muhammad Shamsuddinov placed responsibility on the Russian state and media environment, arguing that the child's death was the foreseeable outcome of sustained nationalist rhetoric.

"Who killed Qobiljon? The system," he wrote on social media.

Shamsuddinov blamed public statements by senior officials, draft legislation in the State Duma, and coverage by state television and nationalist Telegram channels. He said frequent police raids and airport detentions have normalized the dehumanization of migrants.

"Qobiljon was killed by [Sergey] Mironov's constant statements. By [Alexander] Bastrykin's speeches. By the State Duma's draft laws. By Russian state television and nationalist Telegram channels," he wrote.

He also criticized the Russian Embassy in Tajikistan for what he called "stony silence," noting that while its social media accounts continued to post routine updates, they offered no condolences for the slain child.

Sherzodkhon Kudratkhuja, head of Uzbekistan's University of Journalism and Mass Communications, described the killing as ethnically motivated and "impossible to describe in words" after viewing footage of the attack.

"Children are the mirror of society," he wrote on his Telegram channel, calling on Russian authorities to introduce mandatory tolerance education in schools and to reaffirm the principle that all people "are equal in dignity."

Diplomatic response

In the days following the attack, Russian authorities shifted from initial silence on the motive to addressing the diplomatic fallout.

On December 22, President Vladimir Putin met with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon in Saint Petersburg and described the killing as an "act of terrorism," promising the investigation would be "carried through to the end."

The Tajik Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador and demanded an "objective and impartial investigation," explicitly describing the attack as "motivated by ethnic hatred."

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova emphasized the "value of human life regardless of nationality" and said Russia remained committed to its strategic partnership with Tajikistan.

Domestically, officials focused on security measures. Moscow region Goernor Andrey Vorobyov ordered an immediate audit of school security protocols and private contractors after the school guard was incapacitated.

The Ministry of Education urged tighter monitoring of students' social media activity, citing the failure to detect the racist manifesto the suspect had shared on Telegram.

At the same time, regional children's ombudswoman Ksenia Mishonova said she was coordinating psychological support for affected families and advocating closer oversight of online extremist and "copycat" subcultures.

As officials focus on tightening school security and expanding digital surveillance, critics say the case has exposed a deeper failure to confront the ideology behind the violence -- leaving unanswered whether the conditions that led to the killing have been meaningfully challenged.