Beketov, 50, has been receiving treatment at the Sklifosovsky Institute, a leading emergency hospital, but was moved into the intensive care unit Friday, Chirikova said. Relatives and friends were planning to have the journalist transferred to the Burdenko hospital, she added.

“We associate the worsening [of his condition] with the inadequate care he received in the ward where he was held,” Chirikova said.

Beketov, who was hospitalized with trauma to the head and brain, was attacked so violently that he had to have his right leg and the fingers on his left hand amputated. He was initially in a coma, but regained consciousness on November 27th. An operation to remove skull fragments from his brain was postponed, as doctors were concerned that he may not recover from surgery.

Beketov published and edited the Khimkinskaya Pravda newspaper, which was known for exposing corruption and criticizing the municipal administration of Khimki, the Moscow suburb where he lives. Recently, the newspaper teamed up with environmentalists fighting to protect a large swath of forest slated for a controversial and expensive Moscow-St. Petersburg superhighway. Each issue published an investigative article on the subject.

Before his assault, Beketov had been threatened over the phone to keep quiet or face the consequences. Unknown men killed his dog. His car was blown up.

Since the attack, the hospital where Beketov was held received calls promising to “finish [him] off.”

Yet the investigation into his assault has been marked by apathy on the part of police, who were at first reluctant to link the attack with Beketov’s professional work. After a wide public resonance, the investigation was transferred to the Prosecutor General’s Office, and it was reported that Prosecutor General Yury Chaika was personally keeping tabs on the case.

Since then, a former police officer turned criminal has been implicated as a suspect and sought for questioning.

The journalist, who publishes the Khimkinskaya Pravda (Khimki Truth) newspaper, was taken in an unconscious state to a city hospital, where his condition remains extremely serious. Beketov sustained a head injury, multiple broken bones, and other injuries that doctors said could easily have been fatal.

Mikhail Beketov is well known for his critical articles against local authorities in Khimki. His paper has raised issues like the the transfer of an airmen hero monument, and the battle to save a section of the Khimki forest.

Beketov’s articles apparently raised the ire of authorities. In May of 2007, unknown perpetrators detonated his car, and in February, a criminal case was launched against him for alleged libel. The editor has also said that threats were made against his life.

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Mikhail Beketov, speaking with Ekho Moskvy Radio on May 24, 2007

The last issue of the Khimkinskaya Pravda newspaper was powerful, and we demanded the resignation of the current authorities. We were saying that they disgraced the country, disgraced Khimki, disgraced our memory, our past. After the last issue, where we published information about the hideousness happening during the exhumation, when we published photographs of the bones that they found in the graves; I was threatened.

Today, in the fourth hour of morning, I heard a noise, and ran out to my yard: a shadow darted behind the garage, and a car was burning behind it. They burned my car. I understand that this was a warning from the local administration.