A knife-wielding man has attacked staffers of the Russian Communist Party newspaper in the southern city of Stavropol, leaving an editor hospitalized and wounding three others after an article he wrote was rejected, law enforcement authorities and the newspaper say.
The attack took place on May 27, Stavropol Governor Vladimir Vladimirov said on Instagram.
The suspect, who was not named, has been a frequent visitor to the offices of the Rodina (Motherland) newspaper in Stavropol. According to Viktor Lozovoi, who represents the region in the lower house of the Russian parliament, he is on a national register of people with severe mental illnesses.
"The man came to the chief editor and began demanding that his article be published," a Rodina representative said in televised comments. "When the editor said he would not do that, the man drew a knife from a pack of newspapers he had with him and struck the editor with it."
Three other people were injured when several employees came to the aid of the editor, the representative said.
The Communist Party branch in Stavropol said that the chief editor, Nikolai Bondarenko, was stabbed in the face and remained hospitalized. It said another victim was taken to the hospital but was treated and released quickly.
In October 2017, prominent Russian journalist Tatyana Felgengauer was seriously injured when a man with a knife entered a studio at Ekho Moskvy radio in Moscow and stabbed her in the throat. The attacker was later found mentally unfit to stand trial and ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment.
