Russian intelligence behind attack on award-winning journalist, says US

NEW YORK • The United States believes Russian intelligence was behind this month's chemical attack on a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Russian journalist critical of the Kremlin, US news organisations reported yesterday.

Mr Dmitry Muratov, editor of the investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta, has said that while he was on the Moscow-Samara train he was splashed with red paint containing acetone by an attacker who told him: "This is for you from our boys."

Mr Muratov at the time posted photographs of his face, chest and hands covered in red oil paint, which he said badly burned his eyes because of the acetone.

"The United States can confirm that Russian intelligence orchestrated the April 7 attack on Novaya Gazeta's editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov, in which he was splashed with red paint containing acetone," a US official said in a statement, on condition of anonymity.

Mr Muratov could not be reached for comment as he was travelling, a spokesman for Novaya Gazeta told the Post. The Russian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment, said the Post.

Novaya Gazeta announced nearly two weeks before the attack that it was suspending its online and print activities until the end of what Russia calls its "special operation" in Ukraine. The country says the operation is aimed at degrading Ukraine's military capabilities and rooting out what it calls dangerous nationalists

The Russian government had twice warned the paper over its coverage of the conflict.

Last year, Mr Muratov shared the Nobel Peace Prize with crusading Filipina journalist Maria Ressa 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.

REUTERS, NYTIMES