The director of the Moscow independent women's radio station Nadezhda was severely beaten near her apartment by two young men Thursday morning.


Irina Korolyova was taken to the Sklifosofsky hospital with a broken nose and a concussion, Tatyana Zeleranskaya, president of Radio Nadezhda, told a press conference.


"We suspect it was an ordered assassination attempt, since none of Korolyova's jewels or money were stolen, and no demands were made," said Zeleranskaya, who founded the station along with Korolyova in July 1992. "They hit her around the face, as a way of hurting her physically and mentally as a women," she added.


Zeleranskaya said Korolyova was attacked at 7:30 a.m. in the stairway outside her apartment near the Kuzminki metro station in southeast Moscow.


When she asked her attackers what they wanted, they said only "Think about it" and threatened to kill her. Korolyova's husband was not at home at the time.


The local police said Thursday that they had received no report of the attack.


Zeleranskaya said the radio station, whose shareholders include Russia's Women's Union, station employees and a number of banks, had received frequent threats from commercial organizations demanding a controlling share in the station.


Alexei Simonov of the Foundation for the Protection of Journalists said the beating was the third attack on Moscow journalists in the last 10 days.


The other victims were Alexander Minkin of the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets and Sergei Serebryakov of the military television program "Aty-Baty."


Simonov said 17 journalists had been killed in Russia in this year.