Mikhail Beketov, a Russian journalist who suffered brain damage and lost a leg after a brutal assault that followed his campaigns against a highway project outside Moscow, has died. He was 55.
Beketov was an early defender of the Khimki Forest, as WaPo explains:
Beketov was part of a group fighting against the construction of a highway through the Khimki forest near Moscow. Several people with high-profile political connections reportedly stood to profit from the highway’s construction, including Arkady Rotenberg, a billionaire who once taught President Vladimir Putin judo.
After the 2008 attack, Beketov was in a coma and spent more than two years in hospitals. The attackers were never identified.
Beketov’s reporting was too incisive and too well-informed, it seems. Too dangerous for some.