Russian Journalist, Environmental Activist Attacked

Russian journalist and activist Grigory Pasko has been attacked by unknown assailants in the city of Barnaul in Russia's Altai region. Pasko posted about the attack on Facebook on September 27 and said that he had been examined by doctors.

Russian journalist and activist Grigory Pasko has been attacked by unknown assailants in the city of Barnaul in Russia's Altai region. Pasko posted about the attack on Facebook on September 27 and said that he had been examined by doctors.

Danila Galperovich, a journalist with Voice of America, wrote on his Facebook page that he had spoken with Pasko by telephone and confirmed that the journalist was not seriously injured.

Pasko told him that the assailants shouted, "Get out of our city!" and warned him that they would attack him again.

The previous day, Pasko posted an article from a local newspaper in which a local nationalist activist complained that Pasko was a "foreign agent." Pasko wrote that unknown people were following him and loitering around his hotel.

Pasko, a former Russian naval officer, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2001 on charges of espionage connected to his publications on environmental issues in the Sea of Japan.

He was released in 2003 and allowed to leave the country in 2005.

He was in Barnaul to give a seminar on investigative-reporting techniques.

rferl.org