MOSCOW -- Moscow Oblast officials have expressed concern over a recent increase in the number of attacks on journalists, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.
In an official statement, the Moscow Oblast government noted the attacks over the past several weeks on journalists in the towns of Serpukhov, Klin, and Khimki, where an employee at the newspaper "Grazhdanskoye soglasiye" was found dead in late March.
According to the regional government, the main goal in the attacks is to destabilize the situation in Moscow Oblast, which is the second-most populous in Russia.
The statement calls on the relevant authorities to find all the assailants in the attacks and those who ordered them.