Two young men beat a Russian journalist unconscious outside his office on Tuesday, 48 hours after another reporter was attacked with an iron bar.
In the latest incident, Anatoly Adamchuk was attacked as he left the offices of his weekly newspaper in Zhukovsky, 40km from Moscow.
“Two men aged about 25 attacked him as he stepped out of our offices, shortly after 2am,” said Sergei Grammatin, a fellow reporter at the newspaper.
“They hit him twice on the back of the head with their fists and then struck him again when he fell down,” Grammatin added.
BEATING AFTER BEATING
News of the attack spread quickly in the wake of a savage beating in Moscow on Saturday of Oleg Kashin, 30, a blogger and reporter with the newspaper Kommersant.
Adamchuk was unconscious for 15 minutes. Coming to, he called a friend. Police questioned him and opened a theft investigation because he lost a memory stick.
SUSPICIONS
However, his colleagues believe the assault was revenge for his journalism.
“Anatoly says the attackers mentioned the name of our newspaper,” Grammatin said. “We think it was connected with his work.”
Adamchuk — who was taken to hospital — had reported critically on plans to construct a road through a forest in Zhukovsky. It was unclear whether there might be a link to the attack on Kashin.
CCTV footage of that attack was leaked to Russian media yesterday. One of the main theories on why Kashin was targeted concerns his criticism of another road project that threatens Khimki forest, also near Moscow.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said it was clear that Kashin was attacked because of his work.
“It’s not the way wallets usually get stolen,” he said on television, adding that the attackers would be found, “no matter who was behind it.”
Kashin’s colleagues have been critical of police, saying the investigation, into what they believe was his attempted murder, has been inept. His wife, Yevgeniya Milova, also a Kommersant journalist, said she was asked six times if he was gay.
SEPARATE ATTACK
Russian news agencies yesterday reported another attack on a journalist. Sergei Mikhailov, editor in chief of the Saratov Reporter, was struck on the head by an unknown assailant on Friday.
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