Russian Intelligence Behind Novaya Gazeta Editor Attack, U.S. Official Says

Russian intelligence was behind an April assault in Moscow that inflicted chemical burns on a Nobel Prize-winning Russian newspaper editor, American officers stated Thursday.

U.S. intelligence companies concluded that Russian intelligence operatives orchestrated the April 7 assault on Dmitri A. Muratov, the editor in chief of Novaya Gazeta, an unbiased newspaper crucial of the Kremlin and the conflict in Ukraine.

Mr. Muratov was getting ready to journey on a prepare from Moscow when crimson paint laced with acetone was thrown on his face, inflicting chemical burns to his eyes.

The American intelligence evaluation has been declassified and U.S. officers confirmed the data on Thursday. The evaluation was earlier reported by The Washington Post,

In 2021, Mr. Muratov shared the Nobel Peace Prize with a crusading Filipina journalist in recognition of “their courageous fight for freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.” Six of Novaya Gazeta’s journalists have been killed.

After Russia enacted a draconian censorship regulation in March that successfully criminalizes any reporting on the conflict that contradicts the Kremlin, Novaya Gazeta was one of many few unbiased Russian media shops that determined to proceed publication.

But in late March, Novaya Gazeta stated it will droop operation till after the Ukraine conflict was over, after it was twice warned by the Russian authorities that it had violated the brand new regulation. The second warning got here a day after a Russian journalist requested a query on Mr. Muratov’s behalf in a gaggle interview with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.

Less than two weeks later, whereas on a prepare that was getting ready to depart Moscow for a metropolis to the southeast, Samara, Mr. Muratov was attacked. On April 12, Novaya Gazeta resumed publication briefly to publish an investigation into the assault. That investigation recognized the attacker and linked him to a gaggle that denied it had carried out the assault.

The U.S. intelligence work concluding that the assailant was working for Russian spy companies was unbiased of the Novaya Gazeta investigation and drew from completely different sources, stated an individual briefed on the matter. U.S. officers, consistent with customary follow, declined to debate the sources American intelligence companies used to attract the conclusion.