Guardian Unlimited. Skinheads thrive as nationalist tide rises in Russia Abdul Wase was yards from his home when nine skinheads set on him in the underpass, beating him with bottles and metal bars and cracking his head open on a fence. He lay in a coma for six days in hospital before dying last Wednesday. Wase, 27, fled to Moscow to escape the Taliban in 1998, and was known as Doc to his friends because he earned a medical degree in Kabul. He worked in the huge Korinfor market selling photo albums. 'We live in a dangerous region,' said his widow, Tatyana, 20, 'but I never thought this could happen. It's a sign that nationalism against non-Russians is growing.' A friend who would only give her name as Gulia, said: 'Some areas are no-go and we hurry home before it gets dark. In March, near the beer shop where Abdul was beaten, another Afghan was killed.' Incidents like this are plaguing Russia. A medical student from Guinea Bissau was stabbed to death in Voronezh in February. A Tajik girl was stabbed to death by skinheads in St Petersburg last month. She was nine years old.