Despite this drop, Russia remains a far worse offender than most countries in the world.

Maksim Altoury, technical administrator at the Palestinian Embassy in Moscow, told RT about hostility he had to face in Russia.

Maksim was born in Moscow to a Russian mother and he speaks Russian fluently. Being half Palestinian, however, was enough to make him the victim of a vicious racist attack 4 years ago.

“I was with my friend on the metro,” Maksim recalls. “We didn't notice two guys getting on the train. Five more got on at the next station and without any warning they began to beat us.”

Maksim was seriously injured but considers himself one of the lucky ones. Two of his close friends have been murdered in racist attacks during the 5 years he has been back in Moscow. This has forced him to be cautious.

“Now I try not to go anywhere by metro late at night or alone, I stay away from places where drunk people gather. I don't speak another language loudly in public. I try to respect others, not get in their way, and blend in.”

Maksim's story is all too common in Moscow.

“The state needs to prosecute racist criminals systematically, not sporadically,” said Galina Kozhevnikova from the SOVA Centre. “The state also has to prosecute the ideologists, those who promote racial intolerance.”

The majority of targeted foreigners are from Central Asia and the Caucasus. They are welcomed by Russian employers as a source of cheap labour, but seen as competition in the labour market by others.

“The state should change the anti-immigration rhetoric where migrants are presented as the main criminal threat in the country, a danger to the Russian national identity and competition in the job market,” Galina Kozhevnikova believes. “These are all myths not supported by facts. But unfortunately these stereotypes are promoted at the state level.”

Despite his experiences, Maksim still feels very much at home in Moscow and, remarkably, does not bear a grudge.

“Throughout history, Russians have accumulated a lot of negative emotions,” Maksim says. “Things are changing for the best, but there still remain some negative views of foreigners. My advice to any foreigner would be to study Russian culture and language, to love this culture. When you understand them, all will be well.”

Alexander Gorelik, head of the UN Information Centre in Moscow, believes that the key to solving nationality issues are united efforts by law enforcement agencies, courts, schools, and mass media.

“So-called new media, social networks, the Internet, are not only part of the answer but also part of the question. Elements of xenophobia and racial hatred are being propagated by many sites,” he added.