US believes Russian intelligence was behind attack on award-winning journalist

NEW YORK (REUTERS, NYTIMES) - The United States believes Russian intelligence was behind an April chemical attack on a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Russian journalist critical of the Kremlin, US news organisations reported on Thursday (April 28).

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.

A US official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to Biden administration rules, did not give details about how US intelligence had come to make that assessment, citing the need to protect sources and methods, The Washington Post reported.

"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," the US official said in a statement.

Mr Muratov could not be reached for comment as he was travelling, a spokesman for Novaya Gazeta told The Washington Post.

The Russian Embassy in Washington didn't respond to a request for comment, it said.

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 Russian government had twice warned the paper over its coverage of the conflict, which Russia says is aimed at degrading Ukraine's military capabilities and rooting out what it calls dangerous nationalists.

In 2021, 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.

After Russia enacted a draconian censorship law in March that effectively criminalises any reporting on the war that contradicts the Kremlin, Novaya Gazeta was one of the few independent Russian media outlets that decided to continue publication.

But in late March, Novaya Gazeta said it would suspend operation until after the Ukraine war was over, after it was twice warned by the Russian government that it had violated the new law.

The second warning came a day after a Russian journalist asked a question on Mr Muratov's behalf in a group interview with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in an effort to force it to withdraw its forces.