Watchdog

The top editor of the influential Moscow radio station Ekho Moskvy has said that one of his leading producers fled the country out of concern for her safety.

The announcement of Ksenia Larina's departure from Russia, made on October 27 by station chief Aleksei Venediktov, was the latest sign of worsening troubles for Russian journalists, particularly those working for non-state-controlled or opposition media outlets.

Earlier this week, the station's deputy chief editor, Tatyana Felgengauer, was stabbed in the neck by a man who barged into the station's Moscow studios. The man was arrested and investigators have not revealed whether they have discovered a motive.

In an interview with Dozhd TV, Venediktov did not specify why Larina had to flee Russia, but he suggested that a well-known media personality, Vladimir Solovyov, was to blame, something Larina also said on Facebook.

The day after the attack on Felgengauer, Solovyov hosted a program on Vesti-FM radio that, among other things, criticized Ekho Moskvy and its reporters.

"I made the decision to evacuate [her] from the country and she'll be out of the country for half a year at a minimum, so long as her security cannot be guaranteed," Venediktov said. "Because the next blow to the neck from a knife could be because of Solovyov's programs, and he will be the instigator."

Several days before the attack on Felgengauer, the state TV channel Russia-24 broadcast a program in which it alleged some Ekho Moskvy reporters, including Felgengauer, were "working for the West."

Larina's flight from Russia follows a similar decision in September by Yulia Latynina, who cited a suspected arson attack on her car and other suspicions actions.

In a column published in the newspaper Novaya Gazeta the day after the attack on Felgengauer, Latynina also lay blame on Russian officials and their threatening rhetoric.

"The attack on Felgengauer falls neatly into the line of numerous attacks on independent journalists and opposition politicians that were met with impunity," she wrote.

The top editor of Novaya Gazeta said this week that the threats and violence against his reporters had forced him to issue guns that fire rubber bullets to his staff.

Several Novaya Gazeta journalists have been killed or died under mysterious circumstances, including renowned reporter Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot in the foyer of her Moscow apartment building in 2006.

KYIV -- A Ukrainian court has released on bail a self-exiled Azerbaijani opposition journalist, Ukrainian lawmaker Mykola Knyazhytskiy said on his Facebook page.

The court released Fikret Huseynli after he appealed a court decision to keep him jailed while the authorities in Kyiv determine whether he should be extradited to Baku.

Huseynli's release was confirmed to RFE/RL by his lawyer Dmitry Mazurok on October 27.

Huseynli was detained on October 14 by Ukrainian border guards while he was preparing to board a passenger flight from Kyiv to Germany.

The arrest warrant against Huseynli, issued by Azerbaijan, charged the opposition journalist with alleged fraud, falsification of official documents, and illegal migration.

Rights groups say Baku issued the arrest warrant for Huseynli as part of a wider effort to crack down on critics abroad.

Ukraine's border-guard service said he was arrested because his name appeared on Interpol's database of wanted persons.

Huseynli, who formerly worked for Azerbaijan's opposition Azadliq newspaper, fled to the Netherlands after he was stabbed, beaten, and left for dead by unknown assailants in Baku in 2006.

Azadliq says the attack was retaliation for reports on alleged government corruption in Baku.

Huseynli was granted political asylum by the Dutch government when he arrived there in early 2008 and has since obtained Dutch citizenship.

Huseynli now works as a correspondent for Turan TV, a Baku-based news website that is among the last opposition news organizations not to have been shut down by President Ilham Aliyev's government.

U.S.-based Freedom House has called on Ukraine to release him and stop any extradition procedures against him.

The director of Freedom House's Eurasia programs, Marc Behrendt, said on October 23 the case "reflects Azerbaijan's harassment of journalists rather than any actual criminal offense" by Huseynli.