Hate crimes in Russia have grown increasingly brutal and deadly but authorities do little to combat xenophobia, one of the country's leading rights groups said Tuesday.

Last year, 67 people were killed and more than 550 injured across Russia in ethnically motivated attacks, a 13 percent increase on the previous year, according to the annual report by Russia's SOVA rights center, which monitors hate crimes.

"Neo-Nazis are out not to beat up (their victims), but to kill," SOVA's deputy director Galina Kozhevnikova said at a news conference. There is "an obvious steady rise in racially motivated violence" and the attacks are becoming more brutal, she added.

Nationalist and neo-Nazi groups mushroomed after the 1991 Soviet collapse as a dramatic economic decline spread social frustration, particularly among youth. Xenophobia has grown alongside a massive inflow of workers from impoverished ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Students from Africa, visitors from Asian countries, Jews and Russian anti-Nazi activists have become frequent victims of attacks by Russian nationalists in recent years.

Rights activists say authorities have done little to combat xenophobia. Many apparent hate crimes are treated as simple hooliganism, which carries a far milder punishment. Some activists say the extreme nationalist sentiments are an outgrowth of the Kremlin's attempts to rebuild a strong state.

Kozhevnikova said that in 2007, Russian courts delivered only 24 convictions related to hate crimes.

In one positive sign however, the report said in 2007 authorities prosecuted leaders of several regional nationalist organizations for spreading xenophobic materials.

Kozhevnikova said authorities turn a blind eye to the ultranationalists' actions, including public marches, "as long as they abide by certain rules: do not criticize authorities, show loyalty and stick to city outskirts."

While pro-democracy opposition groups are denied permission to hold rallies in Moscow, authorities allowed about 5,000 nationalists to march in the capital in November, raising their right hands in a Nazi salute and chanting "white power!"

"The most worrying trend is that pro-Kremlin organizations are beginning to actively use the methods of ultra-right groups," Kozhevnikova said.

She said the best known pro-Kremlin youth group, Nashi, used ethnic and racist slogans, such as "We won't let migrants rule (Russia)," in the run up to December parliamentary elections.

Nashi spokeswoman Kristina Potupchik denied that her organization uses racist slogans, saying in fact that part of Nashi's agenda was to fight xenophobia.

The government did not immediately comment on the SOVA report. Maxim Karyakin, a duty officer for the Prosecutor General's office, said the office had not seen the report though prosecutors were invited to the news conference.

In the past, President Vladimir Putin has publicly condemned the rise of hate crime, xenophobia and neo-Nazism and called on prosecutors to do more to fight extremism.

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