Journalist claims being beaten for investigation about “Akhmat” fight club

Medical officers diagnosed journalist Andrei Afanasiev with a broken nose. He was beaten in the Amur Region after launching an investigation with regard to managers of the local branch of the “Akhmat” fight club. Andrei Afanasiev said that attackers explained their actions as revenge for his activities.

Shortly after his beating that took place on June 9, Andrei Afanasiev recorded a video message about the incident. “I was beaten by unknown persons near my house, almost near the entrance. They were beating me either with truncheons or with reinforcement bars. In the video, the journalist demonstrates his swollen and bruised hand and says that he can hardly see anything with his right eye. “I feel dizzy, and my kidneys are hurting,” complains Andrei Afanasiev in the video posted in the “Antirating” public account on Instagram.

Andrei Afanasiev associated the attack with preparation by him of the journalistic investigation about the activities of a local businessman and MP, as well as about the local branch of the “Akhmat” fight club. “When they were beating me, one of them said: ‘Write less reports about worthy people.’ They called me an ‘American rag,” the journalist said. In early April, managers of the “Akhmat” fight club were detained on suspicion of extortion, the journalist noted in his post.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 10, 2021 at 05:46 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.