Head of Murmansk region stabbed What we know about the first armed attack against a Russian governor in 15 years

Andrey Chibis, the governor of Russia’s Murmansk region, was stabbed after a town hall meeting on Thursday evening, his press service said. As Chibis exited the community center in the town of Apatity, where the meeting took place, a man reportedly stabbed him in the stomach. According to media reports, the governor remained conscious and was able to walk to a vehicle that then took him to the hospital.

Chibis underwent surgery after the attack and remains in the hospital. Doctors described his condition on Thursday evening as critical and placed him in intensive care. “He was extremely fortunate that his aorta wasn’t hit,” said Yury Shiryayev, the chief physician of the hospital where he was treated. After his surgery, doctors reported Chibis’s condition as “critical but stable.”

Chibis posted a video message about his recovery on Telegram. “My dear friends, I’ve awoken after my surgery. I want to say a huge thanks to our doctors, who saved me. They did everything quickly and correctly. And, of course, to all of you for worrying and supporting me. Thank you very much! Now I’m going to recover, and then it’ll be back into action. Everything will be alright,” the governor said from his hospital bed.

Chibis’s attacker was wounded in the course of his arrest. The Russian National Guard reported that one of its officers used a service weapon to injure the man’s leg as he attempted to flee the crime scene. The attacker was taken to the same hospital as the governor and interrogated there.

According to media reports, the perpetrator is a 42-year-old Apatity resident named Alexander Bydanov. The Telegram channel Mash reported that Bydanov was waiting for Chibis in his car outside of the community center. The newspaper Kommersant said that Bydanov works for Russia’s state-owned railway company and has several past misdemeanor convictions. A source close to the investigation told the outlet that Bydanov said a “voice in his head told him” to attack the governor. Bydanov’s relatives told the Telegram channel 112 that the alleged attacker has no history of mental illness and has not displayed signs of any psychological disorders. On the day of the attack, the channel reported, Bydanov was on sick leave due to severe back pain, for which he’d been prescribed a number of medications, including pills and injections.

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During his interrogation, the assailant said he attacked Chibis because he “disliked” him, the Russian Investigative Committee reported, noting that the man did not know Chibis personally. The agency also said the attacker has previously been charged with inflicting minor bodily harm. Investigators are looking into possible ties between the perpetrator and “extremists,” according to Kommersant.

The Russian authorities have launched a felony case for attempted murder in connection with the performance of official duties, an offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Federal Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin has placed the investigation under the oversight of the agency’s central office.

The attack against Andrey Chibis is the first armed attack on a Russian governor in 15 years. According to the outlet RBC, the last similar incident occurred in 2009, when a suicide bomber drove a car full of explosives into the motorcade of Ingushetia head Yunus-bek Yevkurov. The blast injured Yevkurov and his brother and killed their driver and a policeman.