Video shows suspect just before Russian journalist stabbed in the throat

— -- A Russian radio station where a top liberal journalist was stabbed in the throat yesterday has released what it says is security camera footage showing the assailant breaking into the station’s offices minutes before the attack.

On Monday, a man with a knife attacked Tatiana Felgengauer, deputy editor-in-chief at the station Echo of Moscow, while she was at its studios. The incident has shocked Russia’s political establishment and prompted angry accusations from some who blame authorities for whipping up hatred against critics of president Vladimir Putin.

In the video, published on Echo of Moscow’s website, a man is shown calmly handing over papers to a security guard at the building’s entrance, before suddenly squirting pepper-spray into the guard’s eyes and ducking under a turnstile to run inside. The man then took an elevator up to the radio station and headed straight for a green room next to Felgengauer’s studio, the station's editor in-chief, Aleksey Venediktov told the newspaper Novaya Gazeta. There, he silently approached Felgengauer, grabbed her towards him and stabbed her in the neck, Veneditkov said.

Felgengauer underwent emergency surgery Monday night and is now in intensive care breathing through a ventilator. She in serious, but stable condition, Venediktov said.

On Tuesday, she wrote a handwritten note to her colleagues, posted by another Echo of Moscow journalist, Irina Vorobyeva on Twitter.

“Thank you for the love and support. I am going to be fine. Breathing through a tube is even kind of cool,” the note read. “Also, I got a good night’s sleep for the first time in 16 years on the radio.”

Felgengauer's alleged assailant was detained by the radio station’s guards immediately after the attack and appeared in court on Tuesday, charged with attempted murder. Police identified him as Boris Grits, a 48 year-old dual-citizen of Russia and Israel. In a leaked video of his police interrogation shown on Russian television, Grits said he had attacked Felgengauer because she was tormenting him “telepathically.”

Echo of Moscow is Russia’s leading independent radio station, one of the country's few broadcasters that regularly airs criticism of Putin. The station has previously faced harassment and threats, amid intensifying pressure on liberal media and opposition organisations and a recent string of violent incidents targeting those critical of Putin's rule. The opposition leader, Aleksey Navalny was almost blinded in May after a man threw an antiseptic in his face. Another opposition supporter, Boris Nemtsov, was shot dead yards from the Kremlin in 2015.

In liberal circles, many immediately laid blame for the stabbing on the authorities, accusing them of stoking a fevered atmosphere against critics which leads to increased attacks. Two weeks before the stabbing, the state channel, Rossiya 24 ran a television segment suggesting Echo of Moscow and Felgengauer were working as agents of the U.S. State Department trying to undermine Russia.

Echoing a sentiment widely expressed among liberal commentators, Oleg Kashin, a journalist who was heavily beaten by unknown attackers in 2010, told the channel TV Rain that Felgengauer’s “blood is on the hands of those at Rossiya 24, too.”

A Kremlin spokesman rejected the accusations, telling reporters at a news conference the stabbing was “the act of a madman” and that to draw broader meanings from it would be “illogical” and “hardly fair.”

“We regret this and sympathize with Tatiana, her family, friends, and the entire staff of Ekho Moskvy over this madman’s attack," the spokesman, Dmitry Peskov said.

In court on Tuesday, investigators said Grits had admitted to trying to injure Felgengauer, but denied he wanted to kill her, the BBC reported.

In the video of his police interview, Grits said he had never met Felgengauer, but knew her through “telepathic contact.” Echo of Moscow published a link to what appeared to be an online diary written by Grits in which he accused Felgengauer of “persecuting him relentlessly” through a psychic connection. Police in a statement said Grits would undergo further psychiatric examination.

But in a country with a history of unsolved killings of prominent journalists under Putin’s rule, some voiced darker suspicions that Felgengauer’s stabbing may have been more coordinated than it appeared, pointing to the attacker’s swift actions and apparent knowledge of where to find the journalist.

Venediktov, the station’s editor-in-chief, told Novaya Gazeta, the attacker had been carrying a detailed floorplan of Echo of Moscow’s offices, that he said could only have been drawn up by someone who had been there. Venediktov said he also could not understand how Grits had known Felgengauer would be where she was, as she normally would have been in a meeting.

“He knew something we ourselves didn't know,” Venediktov said, referring to the timings.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles high profile crimes, said it is still examining a motive for the attack. The Committee’s powerful chief, Aleksander Bastrykhin, has taken the case under his personal control, according to a statement on its website.

Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said he would not discuss whether the reports on state television could have contributed to the attack. Felgengauer had her point of view and others could disagree with it, he said.

“In the given case, we respect both that and the other point of view, we aren’t participants in this discussion," Peskov said.