Sixteen-year-old Denis Kulagin had been detained for 72 hours in connection with the fatal stabbing of Vagan Abramyants, a 17-year-old student at a Moscow manager training institute, at Pushkinskaya metro station in downtown Moscow on April 22.
But his attorney Simon Tsaturyan said, "Prosecutors found no grounds to charge [the suspect], so he was released."
However, he added the status of his client remained unclear, as investigators had to establish whether he was a witness or suspect. The lawyer, though, said the dropping of charges showed that prosecutors were inclined to probe further into a race-hate version.
The other version under consideration was that a row had broken out between the two young men over a girlfriend.
"Our version that the crime was racially motivated has taken the upper hand," the lawyer said, adding that prosecutors were pursuing another line that a group of young men had carried out the fatal attack.
"Whether Kulagin was a suspect or an eyewitness is a question that investigation will have to answer," the lawyer said.
