Anonymous Bomb Threats Cause Evacuations Across Russia

A serious attack against a female radio broadcaster.

A probe has been launched into the attack. The female host of the Ekho Moskvy radio broadcaster has been hospitalized.

Knife-Wielding Man Stabs Russian Journalist at Radio Station in Moscow (Photos)
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201710231058469630-ekho-moskvy-radio-stabbing-attack/

The host of the Ekho Moskvy radio broadcaster, Tatiana Felgenhauer, has received a neck injury as a result of a stabbing attack by a knife-wielding man and was hospitalized in serious condition.

"Having stormed into the radio station, a man jabbed the radio station host, Tatiana Felgenhauer, in the neck with a knife. He was apprehended by the security officers and handed over to the police. According to the doctors, Tatiana's life is not threatened. However, [doctors] installed a catheter, she was taken to hospital," the radio station has previously said in a statement.

The condition of the wounded journalist is currently serious and she was put into an induced coma after the operation, Ekho Moskvy Editor-in-Chief Alexei Venediktov told Sputnik. "The condition is serious. Until tomorrow she is in an induced coma (sleep) with artificial lung ventilation," Venediktov said.

According to preliminary information released by the police, the attacker's name is Boris Grits, who recently lived in Israel.

The Israeli Embassy in Russia has not yet been able to confirm or deny the Israeli citizenship of the assailant, the information is being checked, the press attache of the Israeli diplomatic mission in Moscow, Alex Gandler, told Sputnik.

"Information on the Israeli citizenship of the attacker on the Echo Moskvy host Tatiana Felgenhauer is being checked. At present, the Israeli Embassy in Moscow does not confirm or deny this information," the diplomat said.

He added that Israel was outraged by the attack on Felgenhauer, regardless of the nationality of the attacker. "Israel considers it unacceptable to assault the life and health of journalists. We wish Tatiana Felgenhauer and the injured guard of the Ekho Moskvy radio station a complete and speedy recovery," Gandler added.

Investigation and Possible Motives

The Russian Investigation Committee has also commented on the incident.

"The main investigation department of the Russian Investigation Committee in Moscow has instituted criminal proceedings against the 48-year-old man suspected of attempted murder," the statement said.

A source in the law enforcement agencies told Sputnik that the attack was incited by a personal conflict.

"The journalist was wounded in the neck with a sharp object. According to preliminary data, the [attack] was motivated by a personal conflict," the source said.

The suspect himself explained his attack during the questioning, claiming that Felgenhauer "had sexually harassed" him through "telepathic contact" for two months.

"[My] name is Boris Yuryevich Grits. I knew the victim through telepathic contact exclusively. Telepathic contact started in 2012," the detainee said in a video distributed by the official website of the Moscow Department of the Interior Ministry.

He will now be checked for sanity, a source in law enforcement agencies told Sputnik.


Reaction

Alexander Kurennoy, the spokesman for Russia's Prosecutor General's Office, has strongly condemned the attack, assuring that the agency was closely monitoring the situation.

"The outrageous story about the attack on Tatiana Felgenhauer in the Ekho Moskvy building. [I express] words of support to [Felgenhauer's] colleagues at the radio station. I have just spoken to Alexei Venediktov [Ekho Moskvy's editor-in-chief]. assured him that have the situation under control," Kurennoy said on Facebook.

The Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights (HRC) will take the investigation into the attack on Felgenhauer under its control.

"Our Commission on Freedom of Information and Journalists' Rights… will take the investigation into the attack on the host of Ekho Moskvy radio under special control," head of HRC, Mikhail Fedotov, was quoted in the statement as saying.

Fedotov has expressed confidence that it was important to find out the motives for the attack, saying he does not exclude the version of a terrorist attack or mental disorder of the attacker.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Desirhas also commented on the attack.

"I trust that the ongoing investigation by the authorities will be held in a swift and thorough manner. Violence against journalists must not be tolerated," Desir said.
 
A probe has been launched into the incident.

Russian National Guard Officer Eliminated After Killing 4 Colleagues in Chechnya
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201710231058475426-russian-national-guard-chechnya/

The Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia) spokesman has told Sputnik that its serviceman had been eliminated after killing four of his colleagues in Chechnya.

According to preliminary information, the senior lieutenant, whose name was not revealed, fatally wounded four other servicemen in a military unit in the village of Shelkovskaya in Russia's North Caucasus Chechen Republic. The motives behind the move are unclear.

"The officer, who opened fire in a barracks, was eliminated by the unit-on-duty," Rosgvardia official said, adding that an investigation of the incident was underway.

No further details have been available so far.
 
Cases of increased chaos in Russia: Anonymous Bomb Threats, stabbings, attacks

Well, although last two news items are not directly related to the thread, they do point toward the general increased chaos. Perhaps better change the title of the thread then? Apparently the anonymous calls continue, and there are a lot of cases all over Russia of all kind of stabbings and other violent cases.

Regarding the attempted murder of the Russian radio journalist. Liberal oppositionists tried to portray it as an attack by a person, who was brainwashed by the pro-Putin federal media. But then all kind of small details started to come out. Apparently Boris Grits was actually a liberal and pro-opposition. Beside his crazy thoughts about being "telepathically raped" he was also very much against Putin's Russia.
 
Re: Cases of increased chaos in Russia: Anonymous Bomb Threats, stabbings, attacks

Keit said:
Well, although last two news items are not directly related to the thread, they do point toward the general increased chaos. Perhaps better change the title of the thread then? Apparently the anonymous calls continue, and there are a lot of cases all over Russia of all kind of stabbings and other violent cases.

Regarding the attempted murder of the Russian radio journalist. Liberal oppositionists tried to portray it as an attack by a person, who was brainwashed by the pro-Putin federal media. But then all kind of small details started to come out. Apparently Boris Grits was actually a liberal and pro-opposition. Beside his crazy thoughts about being "telepathically raped" he was also very much against Putin's Russia.

Russia's Federal Security Service has been very active since the beginning of the year in reducing and eliminating terrorist activity in the Country.

Maybe, due to breaking up a large number of terrorist cells and dismantling their planned activities and removing them, their only recourse to causing trouble is in making threatening anonymous phone calls?

Russian President Vladimir Putin in his speech at a meeting with top officers and prosecutors, on the occasion of their appointments to higher posts, stressed the importance of fighting against terrorism and stated notable success of Russian security services and military domestically as well as worldwide.

Putin: 43 Terror-Related Crimes Prevented in Russia in 2017
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201710261058562864-putin-terror-related-crimes-prevent/

Vladimir Putin said that Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) had prevented 43 terrorism-related crimes in 2017 noting that terrorism remains among the key threats both in Russia and around the world.

“Dozens of group members have been eliminated and some 800 detained, 66 terrorist and extremist cells have been destroyed," Putin added.

He also said that in the first half of 2017, Russia stopped the activity of 30 foreign intelligence services employees and more than 200 suspects of cooperation with these services.

During the meeting, Putin also thanked Russian servicemen for taking part in the anti-terrorist campaign in Syria.

“Thanks to their courage, clear and professional actions and valor, the situation was radically changed. Over 90 percent of Syrian territory is free from terrorists," Putin said.
 
Re: Cases of increased chaos in Russia: Anonymous Bomb Threats, stabbings, attacks

angelburst29 said:
Russia's Federal Security Service has been very active since the beginning of the year in reducing and eliminating terrorist activity in the Country.

Maybe, due to breaking up a large number of terrorist cells and dismantling their planned activities and removing them, their only recourse to causing trouble is in making threatening anonymous phone calls?

Sounds possible for sure. But for some reason I have a feeling that it isn't exactly that. Something else is going on. Mainly because FSB prevents all kind of events and "dismantles cells" all the time. We just don't hear about it in the news. The only way people are hearing about it is when FSB wants this information to get out, or when they have relatives or friends that are on the force, and they share all kind of rumors during casual conversations. It is probably no different from the way many other agencies operate, for better or worse.

In any case, these two cases that you brought up are good examples of people suddenly going off. But I still don't see any relation to the anonymous phone calls. Maybe you just shared it here for archiving purposes? :huh: That's why I proposed to change the title of the thread.

These are really perplexing and scary cases that do resemble similar crazy cases in the US. Russia certainly has her share of extremely violent crimes, but not so many weird and strange cases of people going off. Not long ago it was considered to be something that "only happened in the US". Well, now it is happening here as well. And that's the major difference.
 
Новости
Журналистку «Эха Москвы» Татьяну Фельгенгауэр выписали из больницы
The journalist of the "Echo of Moscow" Tatyana Felgenhauer was discharged from the hospital
Александра Арсентьева 10:36 03.11.2017
https://tvzvezda.ru/news/vstrane_i_mire/content/201711031028-fd9n.htm
Links within Линкс в пределах:
Журналистку радиостанции «Эхо Москвы» Татьяну Фельгенгауэр выписали из больницы,

«Татьяну Фельгенгауэр выписали из больницы», – написал главный редактор «Эха Москвы» Алексей Венедиктов у себя в Telegram-канале.

Двадцать третьего октября гражданин России и Израиля Борис Гриц ворвался в редакцию «Эха Москвы» и нанес Фельгенгауэр удар ножом в горло. Он был задержан. Журналистку доставили в больницу, где ее прооперировали.

Гриц частично признал вину, сказав, что убивать ведущую не собирался. Он заявил, что через «телепатический контакт» Фельгенгауэр преследовала его два месяца. Назначена судебно-психиатрическая экспертиза.

В Следственном комитете заявили, что версию невменяемого состояния нападавшего рассматривают как единственную. Также главный редактор «Эха Москвы» Алексей Венедиктов рассказал следствию, что журналистке угрожали. Он предложил оценить вероятность возможного участия в данном деле, помимо нападавшего, подстрекателей. ■

The journalist of the radio station Ekho Moskvy Tatyana Felgenhauer was discharged from the hospital,

"Tatyana Felgenhauer was discharged from the hospital," Alexei Venediktov, editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy, wrote in his telegram channel.

On October 23, a Russian and Israeli citizen Boris Grits broke into the editorial office of the Ekho Moskvy newspaper and stabbed Felgenhauer with a knife in the throat. He was detained. The journalist was taken to a hospital where she was operated on.

Grits partially acknowledged the blame, saying that the leader was not going to kill. He stated that through "telepathic contact" Felgenhauer pursued him for two months. Forensic psychiatric examination was appointed.

The Investigative Committee stated that the version of the insane state of the attacker was regarded as the only one. Also, the editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow Alexei Venediktov told the investigation that the journalist was threatened. He offered to assess the likelihood of possible participation in the case, in addition to the attacker, instigators. ■

 
A wave of phony phoned-in bomb threats began in Russia in early September, but all of them have turned out to be false alarms. Around 1.4 million people in 170 Russia cities have been evacuated since then.

Gov’t Building in Kamchatka, Russia Evacuated After Bomb Threat
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201711031058775622-russia-bomb-threat/

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY (Russia) - A government building in Russia’s Kamchatka Territory was evacuated following an anonymous warning that it had been rigged with explosives, a government representative told Sputnik on Friday. About 150 people were evacuated.

"The message came by email," the representative said.

Engineers and firefighters are working on-site. The police are inspecting the building.

According to a source in the emergency services, the wave of bogus phoned-in bomb threats has declined. Russian State Duma deputies are going to toughen punishment for false reports of terrorist attacks.

In October, Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), said that numerous false bomb threats in Russia were being carried out by four Russian citizens operating from abroad, and that they had accomplices within the country.
 
An extremist cell banned in Russia was planning a series of actions against police on the November 4-5 holidays and were supposed to provoke mass unrest in Russia.

Russia's FSB Exposed Banned Movement's Cell Planning Attacks on Police
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201711031058785386-russia-fsb-extremism-police/

A clandestine cell of the Artpodgotovka movement, led by fugitive politician Vyacheslav Maltsev, planned to carry out high-profile extremist actions with the use of incendiary compounds. However, all members were recently detained in the Moscow region by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Investigators are considering initiating a criminal case on attempted terrorist attacks.

The Artpodgotovka activists who have stayed in cities in other countries have formed groups to carry out high-profile extremist acts aimed at the destabilization of the social and political situation," the FSB statement read.

Information about the detainees is not being disclosed due to the ongoing investigation. Moreover, the activity of Artpodgotovka cells in the cities of Krasnoyarsk, Krasnodar, Kazan, Samara and Saratov has been suppressed as well.

Moreover, FSB has also detained "a destructive social movement's" representatives, who called Tomsk citizens to take to the streets in the Day of National Unity via Internet, FSB press service called on Friday.

"During the celebration of National Unity Day in Tomsk, extremists were planning to organize mass riots", the FSB statement informs.

According to the investigators, both attacks were planned for the November 4-5 holidays and were supposed to provoke mass unrest in Russia.

Artpodgotovka is an interregional public movement, also the name of the video blog of Vyacheslav Maltsev. The movement is aimed at ousting Putin from power, the signing of a peace treaty with Ukraine, lustration in Russia, the abolition of "any taxes" for citizens and small enterprises, "the prohibition of the repressive intelligence services in Russia."

Meanwhile, Maltsev, who described himself as a nationalist and anarchist, has said on YouTube that Russia is up for a revolution this weekend just as the nation prepares to mark the centennial of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution on Nov. 7. Maltsev, a former regional legislator from Saratov, unsuccessfully ran for the federal parliament in 2016. He left Russia during the summer, and in October was arrested in absentia on extremism charges.

Comment - I wonder, if Soros is behind Artpodgotovka? Soros backed Antifa have planned mass riots in the U.S. starting on Nov. 4th, also.
 
Amid a wave of bomb threats being phoned in across Russia, there are reports of a series of mass evacuations taking place in different venues in Moscow.

Hundreds of People Evacuated in Moscow After Bomb Threat Calls - Reports (VIDEO)
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201711051058836424-moscow-bolshoi-theatre-evacuation/

Social media users have started to tweet that evacuations were underway at the Bolshoi Theatre, the GUM department store and Metropol Moscow Hotel. Conflicting media reports suggest that 700 to 3,500 have been evacuated from the Bolshoi Theatre.

Ria Novosti reported citing law enforcement agencies that 700 people were evacuated from the Bolshoi Theater after an anonymous bomb threat call. The press service of the theatre has stated that only one performance was canceled due to evacuation.

Earlier in the day, the reports emerged that the Mega Belaya Dacha shopping center had been evacuated.

Meanwhile, an evacuation is underway in Mega.

In recent months, a string of false bomb threats has caused evacuations of over 800,000 people in some 120 Russian cities. Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia's Federal Security Service has earlier said that the individuals behind the phone calls had been identified, adding they acted from abroad.


Police have seized weapons, masks, and components for the preparation of Molotov cocktails from detained activists who participated in unauthorized events in Moscow.

Over 200 People Detained During Unauthorized Event in Moscow (VIDEO)
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201711051058833716-moscow-unauthorized-events/

The press service of the Interior Ministry's Main Directorate for Moscow told Sputnik that "a total of 263 individuals were detained in central Moscow for violations of public order," adding that they were delivered to local police departments for proceedings and the preparation of protocols on administrative violations.

The press service explained that the majority of the detainees participated in the unauthorized action.

Detentions were also held in St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Perm and Rostov-on-Don.

On November 3, the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia announced that a secret cell of the banned extremist organization ArtProdgotovka in the Moscow region had been discovered. All members of the cell were detained.
 
Dmitry Peskov, Press Secretary for Russian president Vladimir Putin, says phone calls threatening Putin's motorcade came from abroad.

'Pranksters' Made Hoax Bomb Threats Against Putin’s Motorcade in 60 Phone Calls
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201711181059208172-putin-bomb-threats/

The Russian president’s spokesman said Saturday the administration had been told about 60 hoax phone calls claiming 50 bombs had been planted across St. Petersburg, including in the way of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s motorcade.

"There were 60 phone calls that claimed some 50 explosive devices had been planted at different sites, including on the presidential motorcade’s route and at the sites that president was to visit in St. Petersburg," Dmitry Peskov said.

The president travelled to the northern Russian city of St. Petersburg on Friday to take part in a cultural forum. Peskov said the president’s security service acted on the threats but their precautions did not affect Putin’s schedule.

"This was done from abroad… These people are phone pranksters, phone terrorists or whatever they are called. Of course, they will be found sooner or later," the spokesman added.

A wave of anonymous phone calls has led to massive evacuations across Russia in the past months. All of them have proven to be false alarms. Oleg Baranov, the chief of the Interior Ministry’s Moscow Office, said this Tuesday that most of the calls came from Japan, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States.
 
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