The convicts have been accused of beating up two Tajiks in the town of Berdsk, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from regional center Novosibirsk, and participating in the September 2005 attack on a local workshop that employed mainly Uzbek nationals, which left four foreign workers hospitalized with various injuries.
The court also charged them with inciting race hate, including painting nationalist graffiti on the walls of buildings and fences. A search of their homes revealed nationalist and extremist literature.
Another member of a skinhead group has been freed from punishment due to the statue of limitations.
The convicts partially admitted to their guilt, but denied their participation in an organized skinhead group.
A surge in violence targeting foreigners with non-Slavic features has prompted Russian and foreign human rights groups in recent months to raise concerns over the alarming spread of racist and xenophobic attitudes in the country.
The problem came into the spotlight after the murder of two Russians in an interethnic brawl in the northwestern town of Kondopoga sparked a wave of racial violence in early September. The local community accused authorities of failing to protect them or safeguard their interests, and of taking bribes from criminal immigrant groups.
In a recent race-hate case, a court in the eastern Russian city of Yekaterinburg has handed down prison terms for two young members of a skinhead group convicted of a racially motivated attack on a Somali television reporter.
The Interior Ministry said in November it is currently monitoring 150 extremist groups in Russia, especially race-hate groups, which have total membership of around 10,000.
About 80% of the extremist groups' members are under 30, and most are based in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Samara and Voronezh regions, according to the ministry's data.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier said that the rise in race-hate crime is a disgrace, and has demanded that police take radical measures to improve the situation.
