The attackers of Russian journalist Oleg Kashin will be found and punished, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.
The journalist from the respected Kommersant daily was severely beaten by unidentified assailants near his house in Moscow early on Saturday. He suffered severe head and leg injuries and is currently in an induced coma. Reports also say his fingers were broken and possibly cut off.
"Whoever was involved in this crime will be punished, regardless of his position or social status, regardless of his other merits, if he has any," Medvedev said at a meeting with journalists from the Russian paper Rossiskaya Gazeta.
"The crime rate in our country is still too high...there are forces who believe that they can silence anybody by such methods, whether it is journalists or politicians," Medvedev said.
The motives for the attack are currently unclear, although Kommersant's editor Mikhail Mikhailin said it was probably be linked to the journalist's recent investigations into extremist youth groups.
Lawyers and public figures polled by the Russian Agency of Legal and Court Information said they were outraged by the attack.
Kommersant is a business daily owned by tycoon Alisher Usmanov, a co-owner of Russia's third-largest mobile telephone operator, MegaFon, and major Russian internet investor Digital Sky Technologies Ltd. (DST).
GORKI, November 8 (RIA Novosti)
