WARNING: This story contains details some readers will find distressing.
Sholbaana Kuular used to take her son to a toy store every day before kindergarten. They'd buy figurines and be on their way.
"One time, we were running late, and we couldn't stop," she says.
"I said 'you've already got so many of those'. We just didn't have time, so off he went.
"That was the day he was beaten up."
Sholbaana's son was an easy target. He looked and sounded different to his classmates in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg.
The family are indigenous people from the country's Tuva Republic — an area of Russia that lies in Asia, with its own distinct language and culture.
While Sholbaana suspected her son was being bullied, she had no idea his situation had become so dire he'd started bribing other children with toys so they didn't hurt him.
"Most people in Russia perceive this sort of behaviour as the norm," she says.
"At my job, my husband's job, even in the kindergarten, most parents were not supportive of my son. They backed the kids who beat him up.
"Do you know how scary that is?"
For Russia's minorities, racism and xenophobia can start at state level.
Last month, two MPs — including the deputy chair of the parliament's education committee — wrote to the country's education minister, urging the number of "foreign children" in schools to be capped at 10 per cent.
They claim having too many migrants in classrooms can lead to "problems with integration into Russian society, as well as the emergence of ethnic conflicts".
Their letter was sent to Dmitry Chernyshenko, one of Russia's 10 deputy prime ministers, who is responsible for education.
"If this migrant-phobic idea becomes law, it will be another step in the horrible machine of racism in Russia," Sholbaana says.
"The number of terrible hate crimes and the amount of racial discrimination will increase. It will be a breakthrough for intolerance and this terrible, terrible nationalist ideology of modern Russia."
A 2021 report by Amnesty International found "violent racism" was "out of control" in the country.
"Racist attacks and killings of foreigners and ethnic minorities are reported with shocking regularity in Russia and, disturbingly, their frequency seems to be increasing," it said.
The Amnesty International report outlined how anyone who didn't look Slavic was at particular risk, but that "even ethnic Russians who are seen as sympathising with foreigners or ethnic minority groups" could be targeted for being "traitors".
Minorities have reported a rise in race hate since March's terror attack on the Crocus City Hall near Moscow, which killed 144 people and injured hundreds more. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for it.
Racist attacks in public areas have been filmed and posted online, but Dmitry Dubrovskiy, a research fellow and expert in minority rights based at Charles University in Prague, says schools are never far from the frontline of discrimination.
"If you have rising xenophobia and racism in society, it very much affects children's behaviour," he says.
"One of the big issues in Russian schools is bullying, and society gives kids the basis for this bullying.
"Behaviour is duplicated by children, who are repeating what's happening around them. The racially and ethnically diverse communities are victims."
Sholbaana and her husband are both doctors. As medical professionals, they were liable to be called up for military service to help support Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
The couple do not agree with the war, and as their son's situation deteriorated, they fled for the Netherlands in 2023 and have sought asylum.
Many people, however, cannot leave.
Tragic suicide triggers outrage and grief
Last month, a 17-year-old girl from Russia's Altai Republic — a province neighbouring Tuva — took her own life.
Friends and relatives quoted in Russian-language media reports claim she was bullied relentlessly.
A post appeared on the girl's Telegram account shortly after her death, which read, in part: "I don't understand what my fault is. Is it that I was born with narrow eyes or that my skin is dark? I was never ashamed of my nationality until some people started making jokes about it."
Authorities say they have opened a criminal investigation into her death, after lobbying from the acting head of the Altai Republic.
Dr Dubrovskiy left Russia in April 2022 and the next month, the Kremlin declared him a "foreign agent". He says the country has "a long history of segregating different cultural groups", partly due to Soviet-era policies.
"People couldn't move. I mean literally. Authorities prevented people from moving freely from one place to another," Dr Dubrovskiy said.
"If you weren't from Moscow or Leningrad [Saint Petersburg], the only way you could go and work there was if you had a very lowly paid, really hard job, like cleaning."
Sholbaana says her son is now receiving therapy for PTSD sustained through bullying.
She is not optimistic about what the future holds for minorities living under Putin's regime.
"Discrimination exists at all levels in Russian economics, society and politics. There is a glass ceiling for non-Slavic people and foreigners," she says.
"When I took my son to kindergarten for the first time I thought it was really exciting, but on day one it was clear he was very uncomfortable.
"When I came to pick him up, he just saw me and started crying immediately. He just cried and cried and cried."
It remains to be seen if the request the MPs Ms Lantratova and Mr Mironov to limit the number of foreign students in classrooms will become law.
