Top Kremlin propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov is rebuffing allegations his network provoked attacks against journalists critical of the Kremlin, calling the man charged with stabbing a liberal radio station’s editor a “typical fan.”
Russian-Israeli citizen Boris Grits, who stabbed Ekho Moskvy’s deputy editor and host Tatyana Felgenhauer last Monday, is believed to have mental health issues. He pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was placed under pretrial detention until December.
On his Sunday evening television show, Kiselyov hit back at commentators who blamed state-run television for cultivating a hostile environment toward Russian journalists critical of the Kremlin.
“I’ll wager that Boris Grits isn’t among the Russian state channels’ viewers. He’s a typical representative of the Ekho Moskvy fan club,” Kiselyov said on Vesti Nedeli (Weekly News), Russia’s most watched new program.
Grits, 48, is a “cantankerous, whining, grumbling-about-persecutions loser” who blames others for his failures, Kiselyov charged.
Citing Grits’s blog posts blaming Felgenhauer’s “telepathic” harassment, Kiselyov said the suspect “had no time for state channels.”
Rather, Kiselyov said, Ekho breeds an atmosphere of hatred toward state-run media, citing polls on the radio station’s website that reflect anti-Russian and pro-U.S. views.