Novaya Gazeta to supply staff with weapons containing rubber bullets after knife attack on Moscow radio presenter

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Editors of the Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta have said they are planning to provide their employees with weapons training and arm them with “traumatic” or less lethal weapons to protect themselves against possible attacks.

The decision comes amid a spike in violence against dissenters in Russia, including this week’s attack on a radio journalist who was stabbed in the neck at the offices of the liberal Ekho Moskvy radio station.

“If the state is not ready to protect us, we will protect ourselves,” said Sergei Sokolov, a deputy editor at Russia’s top opposition newspaper. “When journalists find themselves helpless in the face of lawlessness in the streets and indiscipline of law enforcement agencies, there is no other way.”

The editor of Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, said on Wednesday that a number of employees would undergo arms training and the newspaper would purchase “traumatic weapons”.

The use of firearms is tightly regulated in Russia. The so-called traumatic weapons that contain rubber bullets can be used for self-defence, but they can also inflict lethal damage.

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“I will arm the newsroom,” Muratov said on Ekho Moskvy radio. “We will also supply journalists with other security means that I don’t want to talk about.

“We will conclude an official agreement with the Russian interior ministry,” he added. “I have no other choice.”

Contacted by the news agency AFP, Muratov said he could not provide details of the plan owing to security concerns. “Our security experts have asked me to refrain from comments before we take concrete steps,” he said.

Pavel Kanygin, a Novaya Gazeta special correspondent, said he was ready to use non-lethal weapons to defend himself.

“I don’t see anything bad in our situation,” he told AFP in written comments, adding that potential criminals may be deterred by the knowledge that Novaya Gazeta reporters carry weapons. “This too is defence.”

A spokesman for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Thursday that he saw no reason to provide extra security for journalists.

“Unfortunately, every one of us can become a target of a madman,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that Novaya Gazeta was free to adopt any measures as long as they were in line with existing laws.

Over the past two decades Novaya Gazeta has lost several journalists to contract-style killings, including the investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot in the entrance to her Moscow apartment in 2006.

Earlier this week, Tatyana Felgenhauer, a 32-year-old Ekho Moskvy presenter, was stabbed in the neck by a man who complained the radio host was “following” him in his mind.

Many commentators have blamed the authorities for fomenting hatred against dissenters and creating an atmosphere in which such attacks are possible.