Russia reopens probe into brutal attack on journalist

The investigative committee of prosecutors announced that it was reopening the case of Mikhail Beketov, editor of the Khimkinskaya Pravda weekly in Khimiki suburb of Moscow that has been the location of a bitterly contested road construction plan.

The attack left the 52-year-old suffering from brain damage -- the first of several people who covered the expensive project to come under attack.

The incident left Beketov bound to a wheelchair, with a series of subsequent operations depriving him of four fingers and his lower leg.

The probe's reopening -- which was not explained -- came amid a renewed focus on media freedoms in Russia following the weekend beating of leading Russian reporter Oleg Kashin, who also wrote about the woods.

Doctors put Kashin in an induced coma on his arrival in hospital, but his wife Yevgeniya reported on her blog Thursday that he had regained consciousness for the first time.

"Oleg is no longer being pumped with the sedatives, so he woke up," she wrote, further dismissing reports that Kashin was now being interviewed by investigators.

Facing both domestic and an international outcry, President Dmitry Medvedev gave unprecedented backing to reporters' security following the Kashin beating, vowing to find the culprits "regardless of his position, place in society or accomplishments."

Suburban Moscow reporter Anatoly Adamchuk claimed to have been assaulted early Monday after writing articles about Khimki. The police responded this week by accusing Adamchuk of staging his own assault.

And Konstantin Fetisov -- an environmentalist who also fought the forest's removal in favour of a road -- reported being attacked last week.

The Moscow city authorities have taken the unusual step of allowing up to 200 people to assemble later today on the capital's coveted Pushkin Square on behalf of Kashin.