Russian journalist stabbed in neck ‘in medical coma’

MOSCOW: A Russian journalist was in a medically induced coma on Monday after a man claiming a “telepathic” connection broke into a radio station critical of the Kremlin and stabbed her in the neck.

Tatyana Felgengauer, a 32-year-old presenter for Echo of Moscow, was attacked after the suspect entered the radio station’s building in central Moscow and blinded the security guard with a spray, editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov said.

A police video shows the suspect, identified by the station as Boris Grits, saying he had known the journalist “telepathically” for years. “Using this telepathic contact she stole in every night and tormented me... She had been (sexually) harassing me for two months,” the man says in a clip posted to the Moscow police website.

Felgengauer underwent surgery and was in a medically induced coma at a Moscow hospital, Venediktov said, adding that her life was not in danger but the extent of the damage from the stabbing was not yet known.

“This is a serious attack, a serious blow and her state is also serious,” Venediktov said on the radio. Speaking earlier to reporters, he said the attacker had broken into the station’s Moscow office and lunged at Felgengauer with a knife.

“There was a lot of blood and she was in shock,” the editor said, adding that the suspect, who was overpowered by a security guard, seemed to be targeting her directly. “He knew where he was going and he knew who he was going to. We are all shocked.”

The assault comes after a string of attacks against other prominent journalists and politicians who criticise the government, the highest profile of which was Boris Nemtsov, the opposition leader gunned down on a bridge near the Kremlin in 2015.

Writing in a Telegram message, the radio station identified the suspect as a foreign national and released a picture of the dishevelled man dressed in a black jacket and trousers seated in a chair. The Echo of Moscow also released a link to a blog in which the author, Boris Grits, complained this month that Felgengauer had been stalking him and that the two had a “telepathic connection.”

“Tatyana Felgengauer is stalking me non-stop: morning, day and night,” he wrote, complaining she’s been looking for ways to control his breathing and heart.