A Russian journalist who clashed with officials over their handling of a disaster at a Siberian hydroelectric power plant said he was brutally beaten by unknown assailants on Wednesday. Mikhail Afanasyev, who was briefly charged with defamation for criticising authorities' handling of the August 17 dam disaster, said he was attacked by two men near his home in the southern Siberian region of Khakasia.
"My head is swollen like a ball and my jaw is probably broken," Afanasyev, editor of the local news website Novy Fokus, told Echo of Moscow radio. The journalist said he had been returning home on Wednesday afternoon when a man ran up from behind him and delivered a "strong blow" to his head, after which another man ran up and asked, "Are you sure that's him?"