Those familiar with Mikhail Beketov’s ordeal describe his survival as nothing short of a miracle. The once fit, towering 51-year-old who campaigned on environmental issues and criticized his city government’s policies through the pages of his newspaper is now gone. But the former editor of Khimkinskaya Pravda, an independent publication that exposed the blunders of the Khimki administration headed by Mayor Vladimir Strelchenko, has a fierce desire to return to normal life, or at least some semblance of it. He has a long way to go and he needs our help.
More than a year ago, on November 13, 2008, neighbors
found Beketov lying unconscious in a pool of blood, in the front garden of
his home in Khimki, a Moscow suburb. Attackers had struck to kill—they broke
his skull, smashed the fingers of both hands, broke his legs, and left him for
dead in the freezing cold. Doctors estimated that the attack had occurred at
least a day and a half before Beketov was discovered. He spent three weeks in a
coma, had seven surgeries including leg and finger amputations, and underwent
treatment in three different hospitals. Last week, doctors with the surgical
unit at the
Beketov’s rehabilitation will take months, if not years, doctors say.
Meanwhile, his attackers are still at large; moreover, it is
unclear whether a serious investigation is under way. Two months after Beketov
was beaten, the lawyer representing his interests, Stanislav Markelov, was
murdered in downtown
After Khimkinskaya Pravda published an article on
excavations at a World War II burial site in 2007, local prosecutors brought
defamation charges against Beketov. Most outrageously, while Beketov’s
attackers roam free, the journalist is banned from traveling outside of
A previous attack on Beketov is also unsolved. In May 2007, unidentified men set his car on fire. In a separate incident that year, his dog was deliberately killed.
Friends of Beketov have set up a hard currency account in
Account No. 40703840900490676000—dollar bank account at MOSKOMPRIVATBANK in
Bank address:
ZAO Moskovsky
Kommerchesky Bank “MOSKOMPRIVATBANK”
127299
Bank phone number:
+7 (495) 787 6886
SWIFT: MPRI RU MM
Reuters: MCPB
Telex: 485339 MPRI RU, 485340 MPRI RU
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