Ukraine war: Russian Nobel-winning editor Dmitry Muratov attacked with red paint 'over Ukraine stance'
The attacker shouted:聽"Muratov, here's one for our boys",聽Novaya Gazeta Europe's Telegram channel reported. The assault left the newspaper editor's eyes "burning terribly".
Friday 8 April 2022 08:06, UK
A Russian editor says he was attacked by a man on a train who threw red paint over him because of his newspaper's stance on Ukraine.
Nobel Prize winner Dmitry Muratov told Novaya Gazeta Europe "my eyes are burning terribly" after the attack, which, he said, happened on a train from Moscow to Samara.
His attacker, he said, shouted: "Muratov, here's one for our boys", Novaya Gazeta Europe's Telegram channel reported.
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The channel posted photos of Mr Muratov and a train compartment drenched in red liquid.
Novaya Gazeta Europe is a project launched by newspaper staff after Novaya Gazeta, Russia's leading independent newspaper, suspended its work last week under government pressure.
It was Russia's last major independent media outlet critical of President Vladimir Putin's government and had long had a difficult relationship with the Kremlin.
Others have either shut or had their websites blocked since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February.
Novaya Gazeta had been given a second formal warning by media regulator Roskomnadzor, which has been acting more like a censor recently.
Exactly why the paper was warned remains unclear.
Roskomnadzor told state news agency Tass that the newspaper had failed to identify an unnamed non-governmental organisation as a "foreign agent" in its reporting, as required by Russian law.
It did not specify the report in question.
Pressure against liberal Russian media outlets has mounted since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February, with most mainstream media and state-controlled organisations sticking closely to the language used by the Kremlin to describe the conflict.
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Several opposition activists have reported threatening messages painted on the doors of their apartments.
Mr Muratov, the long-time editor of Novaya Gazeta, shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with Maria Ressa, a journalist from the Philippines.