Ekho Moskvy chief editor Alexey Venediktov announced on Friday that one of the radio station’s anchors, Ksenia Larina, will leave Russia for at least six months, in response to security concerns. Venediktov revealed the news on Dozhd television, explaining that Larina will continue some of her broadcasts remotely.
Venediktov said Ekho needs to “evacuate” Larina because of comments made by pro-Kremlin pundit Vladimir Solovyov on Vesti FM, a day after a nearly fatal assault on journalist Tatyana Felgenhauer. Venediktov warns that “the next blow from a knife to someone’s throat could come after Solovyov’s show, and he would be the instigator.”
On October 24, Solovyov criticized Larina for claiming on Facebook that he welcomed the attack on Felgenhauer. “That bastard Solovyov really wanted this. Who, he says, will shut their [independent journalists’] filthy mouths? Now some volunteers have stepped forward,” she wrote. In response, Solovyov asked, “Liberals, why do you lie?” and invited onto his show guests who accused Larina and her colleagues of “nervous hysteria.”
On October 23, an apparently mentally ill man forced his way into the Ekho Moskvy radio station in Moscow and stabbed deputy chief editor Tatyana Felgenhauer in the neck. Several days before the attack, the state television network Rossiya-24 aired two segments accusing Ekho Moskvy and Felgenhauer specifically of “working for the West.”
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