Russian journalist goes on air for 1st time since attack

Tantyana Felgengauer, Echo of Moscow (Photo By User:Plushev – cropped from File:Flickr_-_plushev_-_IMG_1536.jpg, CC BY-SA 2.0)

MOSCOW — A Russian radio journalist who was stabbed in the throat by an attacker has gone on air for the first time since the assault that nearly killed her.

Tatyana Felgenhauer, a top host and deputy editor-in-chief at Ekho Moskvy, Russia’s only independent news radio station, spent hours in a medically induced coma following last month’s attack at the station’s studios in central Moscow.

Felgenhauer made an appearance on Ekho Moskvy’s morning show on Monday. She said she still faces lengthy rehabilitation.

“If my doctor were to find out that I went on air, I think he’s going to kill me because I’m not supposed to speak,” a smiling Felghenhauer said in the webcast published on Ekho Moskvy’s website.

Felgenhauer said she still feels weak and spends most of her time at home in bed and that she has been assigned a bodyguard: “I’m terribly thankful to the people who provide me security and give me a sense of safety.”

The Investigative Committee has identified the assailant as 48-year-old Boris Grits, who holds Russian and Israeli citizenship. After being apprehended, he told investigators he had been in “telepathic contact with Felgenhauer” for five years.

Ekho Moskvy’s programs have often been critical of the government, angering many in Russian political and business circles. Its hosts and journalists have previously reported death threats.

State-owned media have long targeted Ekho Moskvy along with other rare independent media outlets for its critical reporting.

The state television channel Rossiya 24 put out a report two weeks before the attack that claimed that the station paid for “destabilizing society” ahead of Russia’s presidential election in March.