An opposition politician and journalist in central Russia has escaped unharmed after an unknown attacker set a live grenade to explode outside his home.
Agzam Sharafiev, editor of local newspaper Yegorshiskie Vesti and a member of the Sverdlovsk regional parliament, found the grenade placed inside a glass container close to his apartment in the town of Artemovsky.
Police believe that if the glass had been dropped and shattered, the grenade would have exploded on impact.
Sharafiev believes that the attack was linked to his political or journalistic work, activist organization Open Russia reported Thursday.
“Our newspaper is often hard-hitting and we receive threats constantly,” he said. “Now I'm more inclined to believe that we are talking about politics. A list of potential suspects are known both to myself and to the police — local businessmen and former local politicians — but I'm not ready to name them publicly.”
Local police confirmed that an investigation was already underway.
