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Assailants Jab French Activist With Syringe

A French activist said Friday that unidentified assailants had jabbed her with a syringe containing an unknown liquid as she was walking in central Moscow.

Carine Clement, a Moscow-based sociologist who heads the Institute of Collective Action, a left-leaning nonprofit group, said the Thursday attack was the third time she had been assaulted or threatened in the past three weeks.

She said the attacks might be connected to her anti-fascism initiatives or her participation in protests against infill construction, the development of vacant or underused land plots in areas of the city that are already largely developed.

Clement, wife of State Duma Deputy Oleg Shein, said she was near the Lubyanka metro station when two men approached her, jabbed her in the leg with a syringe, injected the liquid and fled.

She said she handed the syringe over to police as evidence and submitted blood for an HIV test.

A spokesman with the city police's criminal investigations department said he had no information about the attack.

Clement said a man punched her in the face on Oct. 24, robbing her and fleeing in a car. The Ramensky District police precinct has opened a criminal case in connection with the mugging, Clement said.

Last Wednesday, Clement said, a young man approached her in western Moscow and told her in a threatening voice that she should "leave here."

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