Police in St. Petersburg suspended the investigation into the attack on a SOTA journalist

Police in St. Petersburg have closed an investigation into the attack on SOTA journalist Petr Ivanov. Representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs explained this by the fact that they did not establish "the person to be brought in as an accused," according to the department's response, published by SOTA.

Unidentified persons beat a journalist, lying in wait for him at his house, on May 30, 2022. Before running away, the attackers asked Ivanov: “Are you going to do more garbage?” Ivanov also said that the attackers took pictures of him after the beating. A bottle with a blue liquid was found at the scene of the attack - SOTA suggests that they were going to douse the journalist with it.

The victim was diagnosed with a broken nose and bruised soft tissues. The police then opened a criminal case under the article on the intentional infliction of minor bodily harm (part 2 of article 115 of the Criminal Code).

According to Petr Ivanov, already on May 31, a criminal investigation officer in a conversation with him called the name of Grigory Malyshev from the Volunteer Company of the Combat Brotherhood movement as a person who could be involved in the attack. Ivanov has previously made critical publications about this movement. In the future, suspicion was not officially presented to anyone.

• Former Volunteer Company activist Vasily Sokolov, who entered into a public conflict with the movement, wrote that it was also involved in the attack on Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov.