Leading Russian Putin critic targeted with severed pigs head and ‘Judensau’ sticker

The former editor in chief of one of Russia’s most influential opposition radio stations has revealed he was the victim of an antisemitic attack in which a pigs head was left at his front door along with a sticker featuring the word “Judensau”

Alexei Venediktov, an outspoken critic of the war in Ukraine, who has previously criticised Vladimir Putin, posted a photograph on social media of the severed pigs head left in a wig outside the front door of his home.

A picture of Ukraine’s official coat of arms with the word “Judensau,” – German for Jewish pig—a centuries-old antisemitic term written on it was also attached to his door.

“They decided to intimidate me and my family?” Venediktov wrote on his post on Telegram.

The 66-year-old received multiple awards and honours during his career. He was editor-in-chief of the Echo of Moscow, a radio station he co-owned, from 1998 till it was taken off the air in March 2022 for its opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. In 2012, he founded the magazine Diletant.

His Jewish mother Eleonora Abramovna Dykhovichnaya, was a doctor who came from a generation of prominent engineers. In 1983 she along with Alexei’s sister emigrated to America.

Up until 2015 the Israeli media mogul Vladimir Gusinsky had held shares in the Echo of Moscow station until new laws were brought in over foreign ownership.

Venediktov, who describes his political views as conservative had been a member of the Civic Chamber of Moscow since 2016.