This is a reoccurring problem in Russia that came to “fame” with the radiation death/poisoning of the ex-spy has been repeated too many times (less radiation, more blunt objects). Many reporters have disappeared, been beaten, killed, and the like... the latest story.
Russian Reporter `Near Death` After Beating
A prominent reporter in Russia`s Ingushetia region, Magomed Yevloyev, was shot dead in police custody in September.
A Russian reporter who challenged alleged corruption in local government was close to death on Monday after a savage beating, a close friend said.
Mikhail Beketov, the editor of a newspaper in the Moscow suburb of Khimki, was found unconscious and covered in blood near his home on Nov. 13. He had multiple fractures.
Doctors have amputated one of his legs and have had to delay another operation at Moscow's main emergency hospital, the Sklifosovsky Institute, because his condition is so serious.
"Mikhail is floating between life and death," Lyudmila Fedotova, a friend of Beketov's, told Reuters by telephone.
"He remains in a coma. The doctors say he is the most seriously ill patient in the intensive care unit of the Sklifosovsky Institute."
"This is what happens when you oppose certain people," Fedotova said. "If they finish me off then you can write a story about that too. I am no longer scared."
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said that threatening calls had been made to the hospital where Beketov was treated. The Sklifosovsky Institute declined to comment.
"Beketov has lost a leg and is still in a coma, but that is not all -- threatening calls were also made to the hospital where he was taken," Reporters Without Borders said.
"Violence against journalists continues to be very much in the news in Russia... This cycle of violence must stop."
Reporters in Russia risk beatings and even death if they delve into the murky world where Russian politics and business overlap. Attackers are rarely convicted and journalists say they regularly receive threats....
