Mikhail Beketov and Impunity One Year Later

Last November unknown assailants brutally beat Mikhail Beketov in the town of Khimki, near Moscow, leaving him nearly dead in his backyard. One year later, Beketov, who is editor of the Khimki-based independent newspaper Khimkinskaya Pravda, remains hospitalized and permanently handicapped.  The attack took place after he wrote a number of articles challenging the Khimki authorities not to cut down a large swathe of a forest to build a new highway.

Dozens of supporters from the opposition Yabloko party, the Protect Khimki Forest movement, and some human rights activists gathered in Moscow on November 16 to demand that the government take over the investigation of Beketov's case. They said the investigation is being conducted too slowly, and collected signatures to press for more effective action.

In a statement issued on November 12, the watchdog group Committee to Protect Journalists marked the attack and noted that Beketov’s “assailants and those who commissioned them are still at large.” The group called for a thorough and effective investigation of the case and warned against the reign of impunity in Russia.