Intruder stabs Russian radio host in the throat

Oct. 23 (UPI) -- A Russian radio host is in intensive care after being stabbed by a man who broke into a radio station on Monday, officials said.

Tatyana Felgenhauer, deputy editor of the Echo of Moscow radio station, was stabbed in the throat by an intruder who allegedly broke into the station's studios in a central Moscow tower block at lunchtime and carried out the attack.

Alexei Venediktov, the station's editor-in-chief, said doctors operated on Felgenhauer, 32, for more than an hour. She entered a medically-induced coma, but doctors don't believe her life is in immediate danger.

Police identified the attacker as 48-year-old Boris Grits, a man with dual Russian-Israeli citizenship who recently returned to Moscow after moving to Israel in 2003.

Grits pepper-sprayed a security guard in the face on the ground level of the building before taking an elevator to a guest area on the 14th floor where he stabbed Felgenhauer.

"The attacker didn't scream anything," Venediktov said. "Everything was quiet and he was silent. He walked up, grabbed her, and delivered the blow."

Felgenhauer was conscious following the attack and was able to walk, but was rushed to the hospital when it became apparent she had sustained serious injuries.

A pair of security guards apprehended Grits, who was later taken into police custody.

Police are still trying to determine Grits' motive, but leaked footage showed him saying Felgengauer had been persecuting him "telepathically."

Venediktov said Grits "knew things he shouldn't have known," adding it was to early to tell if he had acted alone.

"How did he know Tanya would still be here? By the time of the attack, she would normally have left. There are many questions," he said.

Echo of Moscow is one of few independent outlets in Russia and is sharply critical of President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.

Yevgenia Albats, a magazine editor who has a show on the station, said liberal journalists in the country are subject to constant aggression.

"The amount of aggression directed towards liberal journalists in this country from state media and elsewhere is overwhelming and non-stop," she said. "Nobody is going to defend us; we're the enemies of everyone."