MOSCOW, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev has vowed to punish attacks on journalists after several government-critical reporters were assaulted in recent days.
It's grainy and without sound, but the video clip is nevertheless painful to watch: A black and white CCTV clip leaked to the Internet shows two men fiercely beating a man to the ground with what looks like a metal rod and then hammering away at him for minutes.
The clip reportedly shows the attack on Oleg Kashin, a prominent journalist working for business daily Kommersant. The attackers, who waited for the reporter in front of his apartment in central Moscow, broke Kashin's jaw, his ankle, several fingers and cracked his skull. They didn't steal anything from him.
Even police and state-run media speculate that the attack is politically motivated. Two other journalists were beaten during the past days, Russian media reports said.
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The attacks have resulted in unprecedented media pressure on Medvedev, who ordered Russia's top prosecutor to lead the investigation and on Monday directly commented on the case.
"Whoever is involved in this crime will be punished, regardless of his position, place in society or accomplishments," Medvedev said in comments broadcast on state television.
"I have seen media reports claiming that (the attackers) won't be found. They will be found. There is no doubt," he said.
Reporters need to be protected because they're at greater risk than others, the president added.
High-ranking Russian journalists over the weekend called on Medvedev to ensure press freedom, writing in an open letter that eight of their colleagues were killed this year and 40 more have come under attack. Most of the cases have been unsolved, including the killing of Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist with Novaya Gazeta, a Kremlin-critical newspaper.
Kashin has been a thorn in the eye of many young followers of the United Russia Party, led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
A pro-Kremlin youth group, called The Young Guards, reportedly posted a list of reporters, with Kashin at the top of the list, it planned to punish, Kommersant reports.
Doctors put Kashin into an induced coma and said he was in stable condition but refused to make any predictions about his recovery.
"His problems are serious, so we are not going to make any forecasts for now," Dmitry Semyonov, a top doctor at the hospital in Moscow, was quoted as saying by state-run Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
