The trial of a man accused of stabbing an Ekho Moskvy radio journalist in the neck last year has kicked off in Moscow.
Addressing the court on April 18, Boris Grits admitted that he stabbed Tatyana Felgengauer three times -- to the neck, the head, and a hand.
He also said that he didn't intend to kill the journalist.
Grits' lawyer, Igor Zuber, said that he planned to ask the judge to change the charge from attempted murder to inflicting damage to health.
Felgengauer, a program host and deputy editor in chief at Ekho Moskvy, survived the October 23 knife attack.
Grits is accused of entering the radio station's headquarters in a Moscow office building on October 23, blinding a security guard with a spray, and attacking Felgengauer.
He was detained by security guards at the building and later arrested by police.
Investigators said Grits had told police that he had been in "telepathic contact" with Felgengauer for five years.
Russia's Investigative Committee has said psychological and psychiatric evaluations have shown Grits suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.
State media have long targeted Ekho Moskvy as well as Russia's other few remaining independent media outlets, for critical reports about President Vladimir Putin's government.
Shortly before the attack on Felgengauer, state-run Rossia-24 TV issued a report claiming Ekho Moskvy had received payments from Western nonprofit organizations to "destabilize society."
On October 27, 2017, Ekho Moskvy chief Aleksei Venediktov said one of his leading producers, Ksenia Larina, fled Russia due to concern for her safety.
Larina's departure followed a similar move in September by Yulia Latynina, host of a weekly program on Ekho Moskvy, after threats and a suspected arson attack on her car.
