An assailant stabbed a senior editor at Russia's Echo of Moscow radio Monday in a brazen break-in and attack at one of Russia's most prominent and politically outspoken talk stations. The assault was the latest in a series of attacks, some with political motives, on prominent journalists in Russia.

Tatiana Felgengauer, the deputy editor in chief, was hospitalized with wounds to her neck and arms. As of Monday evening, Felgengauer was in an induced coma following an operation to repair a deep wound to her neck, Alexei Venediktov, the radio station's editor in chief, said in an interview.

"This is not acceptable. It's spreading like a plague," Venediktov said, referring to attacks on journalists. "Journalists are absolutely without protection in our country."

The attack shocked Russia's political establishment. The Moscow mayor personally intervened to get Felgengauer quickly to an elite hospital, Venediktov said, possibly saving her life. Alexei Gromov, deputy chief of staff to Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, also called to pledge his support.

The attacker was identified as Boris Grits, a graduate of a Moscow university who Russian police said held a foreign passport and had lived in Israel. In leaked footage of a police interrogation broadcast by a Moscow television station, Grits said that Felgengauer had "used telepathy" to sexually harass him. The two did not know each other personally.

Journalists, political bloggers and activists have raised alarms about security fears for years. Several weeks ago, Felgengauer and another Echo of Moscow journalist were targeted in an exposé on Russian state television for meeting with a leading Russian opposition figure, while the station was accused of taking Western money.



Investigators and journalists in the Echo of Moscow radio station office after reporter Tatyana Felgengauer was stabbed in the neck by an intruder on Oct. 23. (Chiriko/Epa-Efe/Rex/Shutterstock)

"It's the same way this channel began to persecute Boris Nemtsov," the former Russian opposition leader gunned down in 2015, Venediktov said. "They raised the level of hate."

According to security footage, Grits sprayed a gas in the eyes of security guards in the lobby before taking the elevator up to the radio station's 14th-floor offices. Once there, he found Felgengauer and attacked her with a sharp object before security guards intervened and handcuffed the man.

A photograph of the assailant released on social media showed a middle-aged man in dark clothing sitting handcuffed in an office chair. Nearby, blood is spattered across the office's lacquered wooden floor.

Echo of Moscow journalists have complained about violent threats against them in the past. Venediktov regularly travels with a bodyguard.

Yulia Latynina, a veteran political analyst for the radio station who reports on the Kremlin and Russian security services, fled Russia last month after unknown assailants set fire to her car.

"You remember that I have had to evacuate some of my employees," Venediktov said, referring to Latynina and several others who have been threatened or had to leave the country because of their reporting.

The Committee to Protect Journalists lists more than 50 Russian journalists killed since 1993.

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