The Ekho Moskvy journalist Tatiana Felgengauer, who was injured in the neck in an attack at the radio station’s office, is not planning to leave Russia.
“So far I cannot say that I am dreaming of leaving Russia as soon as possible, it has not occurred to me,” Felgengauer said on Ekho Moskvy.
“I always used to have a ready answer: that I would leave Russia only if there’s a physical threat to my life. But now I understand that everything is not that straightforward,” Felgengauer said.
It will take her about two months to recover after the throat surgery, she said. “I should be avoiding stress for at least a month, two, actually. I promise that in time for New Year I will be almost like new,” Felgengauer said.
She also said that she’d been given a security guard. “I am under protection and I am terribly grateful to the people who are doing this. But I can say no more about it,” Felgengauer said.
The journalist was attacked at the Ekho Moskvy office on October 23. The perpetrator broke into the building, having blinded a security guard with tear gas, and stabbed the journalist in the neck. She was taken to the Sklifosovsky hospital where she underwent an emergency operation. The assailant was detained and identified as 48-year-old Boris Grits.
Grits has been charged with attempted murder (Criminal Code Articles 30 and 105). The suspect pleaded partly guilty. During questioning he motivated his attacks with “telepathic stalking” on the journalist’s part.
After the attack on Felgengauer Ekho Moskvy editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov criticized the work of federal television: in his view, criticism of the Ekho staff could put its journalists at risk. He then said that, because of that, he decided “to evacuate [journalist Ksenia Larina] from the country.”
