INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST SEVERELY BEATEN.

In another potentially ominous sign for Russia’s beleaguered independent press, Oleg Lurye, the investigative reporter who has done much probing into the Mabetex case, which the Prosecutor General’s Office closed down last week, was severely beaten outside his home over the weekend. Lurye, who writes for the weekly Novaya gazeta and earlier wrote for the weekly Versiya, connected the attack directly to his appearance on the December 15 edition of NTV’s Glas Naroda, during which he attacked the Prosecutor General’s Office for going after Gusinsky and Media-Most while closing down the Mabetex case and ignoring corruption allegations against Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov (NTV, December 15). Lurye said that immediately after the program, unknown persons began following him. Four assailants attacked him the following night, beating him severely for perhaps ten minutes but not robbing him. Lurye suffered a concussion during the attack (NTV, December 15).

Earlier his year, another Novaya gazeta journalist, Igor Domnikov, was beaten unconscious with a hammer by an unidentified assailant near the entrance to his apartment building (see the Monitor, May 15). Domnikov died later, without regaining consciousness.

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