Pig’s head, antisemitic graffiti left on Russian Jewish journalist’s door

“They expect me to be intimidated and they are trying to get me to leave the country. No, they will not succeed,” the defiant newsman said.

By World Israel News Staff

A prominent Moscow-based Russian journalist was targeted by vandals after writing articles critical of the invasion of Ukraine. They left antisemitic graffiti calling him a “Jewish pig” and a severed pig’s head at the front door of his apartment.

Russian Jewish writer Alexei Venediktov, who served as the editor of the Moscow Echo before it was shuttered by the Russian government earlier this month, posted photos of the vandalism to his Telegram channel.

“This in the country that defeated fascism,” Venediktov wrote sarcastically. “Why not just fix a six-pronged star [Star of David] to my apartment door?”

Several hours later, he posted a still image from a surveillance video which purported to show the vandal entering his apartment building’s lobby, clad in the uniform of a food delivery company.

He said he contacted the company, who told him that the uniform seen in the video had not been used by their couriers for years.

Venediktov said the vandalism was aimed at silencing him and forcing him to flee Russia.

“They expect me to be intimidated and they are trying to get me to leave the country,” he wrote. “No, they will not succeed.”

Venediktov added that he had nearly been shot by Chechen extremists while covering the 1994 war with Russia in the territory, so vandalism did not scare him.

“Also, I really like pork, despite my Jewish origins,” he quipped.

Earlier in March, the Russian government shut down his outlet for allegedly publishing “deliberately false information about the actions of Russian military personnel.”

While Venediktov has been critical of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, his general political outlook is right-leaning and conservative.

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher are his political idols, he has said in interviews.

Since 2016, he has served on the Public Board of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Civic Chamber of Moscow.

AntisemitismRussiaRussia UkraineRussian Jews