Racism prompts Cameroon player to leave Moscow club

Stephan Andre Bikey--a halfback for Moscow's Lokomotiv soccer team--is threatening to leave the team because of racism, according to an August 8, 2006 report by the Regnum news agency. Mr. Bikey was quoted as saying that: "It's hard to live here for a person with dark skin... The police won't protect you. Once three people came after me on the street, but I was able to run away. You need a gun to defend yourself." He was quick to say that Lokomotiv fans are not the problem, but that fans for other Russian soccer teams, especially Spartak, "direct a lot of negative emotions" towards him, motivated by racism.

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