Two young men beat a Russian journalist unconscious outside his office on November 8, 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, near Moscow.
“Two men aged about 25 attacked him as he stepped out of our offices, shortly after 2am,” said Sergei Grammatin, a colleague.
“They hit him twice on the back of the head and then struck him again when he fell down.”
News of the attack spread quickly in the wake of the savage beating in Moscow of Oleg Kashin (30), a blogger and reporter with the Kommersant.
Police questioned Adamchuk, who was unconscious for 15 minutes and later hospitalised, and opened a theft investigation because he had lost a memory stick. But 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 had reported critically on plans to construct a road through a forest in Zhukovsky.
One of the main theories about why Kashin was targeted concerns his criticism of another road project, which threatens Khimki forest, also near Moscow.
Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, said it was clear 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 has been inept. His wife, Yevgeniya Milova, also a Kommersant journalist, said she was asked six times if he was gay.
Russian news agencies also reported another attack on a journalist. Sergei Mikhailov, editor-in-chief of the Saratov Reporter, was struck on the head by an unknown assailant. — Guardian News & Media 2010