Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register April 7 (Reuters) – Russian co-winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, Dmitry Muratov, was attacked by a red-painted train on Thursday, he said, in an apparent protest over his newspaper’s coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Muratov’s research newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported last week that it was suspending its online and print activities until the end of what Russia calls a “special operation” in Ukraine following a second warning from the state communications regulator. Pictures published by the newspaper in the Telegram messaging app showed Muratov in red paint on his head and clothes and around his sleeping area on a Moscow-Samara train. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “They poured acetone oil paint all over the apartment. The eyes were burning intensely,” the newspaper quoted Muratov as saying. “Muratov, this is for you one of our boys,” the striker’s post said. Pressure on liberal Russian media has grown since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine in February, with most of the mainstream media and state-controlled organizations sticking to the language the Kremlin uses to describe the conflict. Several opposition activists reported threatening messages painted on the doors of their apartments. Russia says its “special military operation” in Ukraine is necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia, and Moscow had to defend Russian-speaking people in Ukraine from persecution. Ukraine and critics in Russia have denied the Kremlin’s allegations of persecution, saying Russia is waging an unprovoked offensive war. NATO and other Western allies have imposed severe sanctions on Russia in a bid to put financial pressure on Russia to invade. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Writes Conor Humphries. Edited by: Leslie Adler Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
