Video of the near-fatal beating of Oleg Kashin has surfaced online (click here to see it), drawing attention to the plight of journalists in Russia, the New York Times reports. President Dmitry Medvedev has taken a stand on the issue, involving the prosecutor general's office and tweeting, "The criminals should be found and punished." While some in the jaded press community—all too used to the beating and killing of colleagues—think Medvedev's outrage is merely for show, others see swift action against the offenders as the first salvo in the president's push against Russian reactionaries—and his mentor, Vladimir Putin.
"The fight that's shaping up is between those who want to continue the old model in which Russia's economy is dominated by resource extraction, and those who want to move to a high-tech based information society," a Carnegie Center analyst tells the Christian Science Monitor. While Medvedev is certainly an insider, he is seen as the best shot for progressive change—a hope that will be much advanced if he presides over the successful prosecution of Kashin's attackers.
(More journalists killed stories.)
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