You're reading: Update: Russian journalist beaten up, second one in two days

MOSCOW (AP) — A reporter for a suburban Moscow paper was beaten up Monday, two days after another Moscow journalist was bludgeoned on the head, arms and legs in a brutal attack that has caused a national uproar.

No motivation for either attack has been determined, but both men wrote about efforts to stop developers from cutting down trees in forests around Moscow for highways. An opposition activist also trying to protect the Khimki forest near Moscow had his skull fractured in another assault just last week.

Road construction is considered one of the more corrupt sectors in Russia, and President Dmitry Medvedev has made reducing Russia’s endemic corruption one of his priorities.

Police in the Moscow suburb of Zhukovsky said they were investigating the attack on Anatoly Adamchuk by two men outside his weekly newspaper offices early Monday. Adamchuk did not immediately seek medical treatment, but his condition deteriorated and he was later hospitalized with a concussion, a colleague wrote on the website of the paper, Zhukovskiye Vesti.

Kommersant reporter Oleg Kashin was beaten so badly early Saturday that he had to be put into a drug-induced coma. He suffered a head injury, a shattered jaw and a broken leg. His hands were so mangled that a joint of his left pinky was missing when he arrived at the hospital.

Russia has experienced a wave of assaults on journalists and activists. In most cases, the perpetrators are never found, but the Kremlin is trying to show it is taking the Kashin case seriously. Medvedev has ordered that his attackers be found and punished.

Kommersant, which focuses on business and politics, is one of Russia’s major mainstream papers.

Security camera footage posted Monday on YouTube purportedly shows the horrific attack on Kashin, who was jumped by two men outside his apartment building when he came home.

The grainy video appears to show a man with a bouquet of flowers punching Kashin in the face. A second man emerges from the shadows and the two pound the journalist with at least 50 blows, some with an unidentified weapon. The attackers leave in a hurry and the man on the ground tries to stand up but falls back to the ground.

Kashin had written on a wide range of issues, but among the more contentious was the efforts by environmentalists and opposition activists to protect the Khimki forest from being cleared for a new highway. Medvedev in August ordered the highway construction suspended, but there has been no final decision on the fate of the highway.

The Khimki campaign has inspired similar efforts, including one in Zhukovsky, where another highway is planned through a forest.

Adamchuk’s newspaper has published critical reports about the construction plans, and last week Adamchuk wrote about schoolchildren who were detained by police after tying ribbons around trees in the forest. A rally to protest the highway construction is planned for Sunday in Zhukovsky.