Just days before being attacked, Stanley L. Robinson III told his mother how much he was enjoying Russia.

The recent East Providence High School graduate was adjusting well to his new classes in a study-abroad program and had made friends while working out after school. After leaving a gym to go home on Dec. 5 a man reportedly assaulted Robinson while he waited for a bus in the southern city of Volgograd, according to his mother, Tina Robinson.

The unknown assailant stabbed Robinson twice during the struggle. Yesterday, a doctor at Volgograd Hospital told the Associated Press’ Moscow bureau that the 18-year-old was in grave, but stable condition.

The police are trying to determine if the assault was a hate crime and racially motivated since Robinson is an African-American. They told the AP that they don’t have any suspects detained nor have they ruled out robbery or random violence.

“I believe it happened because he is a person of color,” his mother said. “It was completely unprovoked.”

In recent years, Russia has seen a rising number of attacks against members of non-Slavic ethnic groups, particularly darker-skinned migrants from the Caucasus region and Central Asia. African students and immigrants are also frequent targeted, but attacks on Westerners are rare, the AP reports.

A hate-crime monitoring group told the AP that at least 385 people have been hurt and 85 killed in racially motivated attacks this year in Russia.

“If I had any inkling that there was any possibility of this happening, I would have tried to dissuade him [from going],” Tina Robinson said, after learning of the number of such incidents.

For the last week, she has been working with government officials to get her son to a better-equipped hospital outside of Russia.

“With the language barrier and other issues, it’s hard to get a status update,” Tina Robinson told The Journal yesterday. She talked to her son earlier this week and thinks he has developed pneumonia.“I’m concerned he’s not getting the best treatment … I’m just concerned, ” she said.

Robinson graduated from East Providence High School in June. Principal Caroline Caswell said he was an honors and college-prep student who never got into trouble.

“I’ve known him since the sixth grade at Martin [Middle School],” she said yesterday afternoon. “He was always a calm, cool and collected kid, and I’m just in shock right now. He’s such a great kid.”

Caswell said she talked to him over the summer and he never mentioned going to Russia. Yet friends on his MySpace.com page knew. Updated three days before the attack, it starts with, “Stanley in Russia!!! No lie!”

It also says, “Russia is no joke!”

Tina Robinson said her son loves different cultures and wanted to travel. He chose to extend his high school experience by taking classes in Russia through the American Fields Service, or AFS, which offers study-abroad programs in more than 50 countries.

Russia was Stanley Robinson’s second choice. Sweden, which he already has been to, was his first choice. AFS arranged for him to stay with a host family for a year. He had been in Volgograd, an industrial city about 600 miles southeast of Moscow, since late August.

AFS United States representative Marlene Baker said Robinson was one of five American students in Russia through the program. She said 64 students have been participating in the AFS Russia program.

apina@projo.com