May 21, 2010 By Robert Amsterdam

Medvedev Must Protect Journalists

We’ve covered the case of the persecuted Russian journalist Mikhail Beketov in many articles on this blog, and it’s good to see his name featured in a New York Times editorial today.

Mr. Levy described how Mikhail Beketov dared to write about how local officials in the Moscow suburb of Khimki had demolished a Soviet war monument to widen a road and the local government’s plans to plow a major highway through a forest. Mr. Beketov was savagely beaten and left bleeding in the snow outside his house.

His attack left him brain damaged and confined to a wheelchair. Eighteen months later, the authorities have barely begun to investigate.