Mikhail Beketov

Beats Covered:
Local or Foreign:

55, the former editor of the independent newspaper Khimkinskaya Pravda in
the Moscow suburb of Khimki, died in a Moscow hospital from heart failure stemming from a
choking episode during lunch, Elena Kostyuchenko, Beketov’s friend and a
reporter for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, told CPJ by

choking incident was directly related to a November 2008 assault on Beketov,
which left him in a coma for several months, according to Kostyuchenko and news
reports. When he was in the coma, surgeons maintained his breathing by inserting
a tube during a tracheotomy. Kostyuchenko said the combination of the deep
tracheal scars and the food led to him choking, which blocked airflow to his
lungs and in turn led to heart failure.

November 2008, neighbors had found Beketov lying in his front yard in Khimki,
more than 24 hours after unidentified assailants crushed his skull, broke his
legs, smashed both hands, and left him to die in the cold. Physicians removed
part of Beketov’s brain after the attack, and amputated a leg as well as some
fingers, according to news reports. The journalist regularly visited the
hospital for checkups.

to the attack, Beketov had publicly accused Vladimir Strelchenko, then the
mayor of Khimki, of nepotism and corruption and had heavily criticized his
administration’s decision to replace parts of a local forest with a freeway.

Chirikova, a local environmental activist and contributor to Khimkinskaya Pravda, told CPJ that
Beketov had received multiple threats in connection to his work. She said that
unknown men had approached and told him, “You’re due for a hit.” In May 2007,
unknown attackers firebombed Beketov’s car, and killed his dog, Chirikova told

including Russian President Vladimir Putin, promised to
bring his attackers to justice but investigators failed to name or arrest anyone
in connection with the assault. Instead, two years after the attack, the
journalist was convicted of
libel in connection with a lawsuit filed by
Strelchenko. He was ordered to pay 5,000 rubles in damages to the former mayor.
A higher court later overturned the verdict.