Russian Journalist Beaten In Kyrgyzstan

A reporter for the Russian BaltInfo news agency was beaten in Kyrgyzstan's capital today, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.

Aleksandr Evgrafov told RFE/RL that two men in police uniforms forced him into a car that had no license plates and tried to search him.

When he resisted they beat him, he said.

Evgrafov said the men instructed him not to write "bad things" about Kyrgyzstan, adding that he should not try to "exonerate former Kyrgyz authorities."

Evgrafov said the attack is connected to his journalistic activities.

On December 9, unknown assailants attacked and beat Aleksandr Knyazev, the director of the Bishkek branch of the Commonwealth of Independent States Institute.

Knyazev has often criticized the foreign policy of the Kyrgyz government.

The same day, former Kyrgyz Security Council Secretary Bolot Januzakov was also beaten and hospitalized.

Januzakov was a close associate of former Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev, who fled the country in 2005 and currently lives in Moscow.