MOSCOW, April 5, 2024 (AFP) – The governor of Russia’s far northern Murmansk region has been taken to intensive care after being stabbed by a man on Thursday evening, local authorities said.
Andrey Chibis, 45, was knifed in the stomach outside a cultural centre in the town of Apatity, where he had been holding a meeting with local residents.
He is currently in “the intensive care and resuscitation department” of a hospital in the city of Murmansk, the region’s authorities said on their Telegram channel.
“The condition of the governor is assessed as serious, but stable,” it said, citing regional health minister Dmitry Panychev.
Chibis said in a video posted on Telegram from his hospital bed early on Friday that he had “come around” after undergoing surgery and that doctors had saved his life.
The attacker was detained and is expected to undergo forensic and “psychiatric examinations”, investigators said.
“During interrogation, the man explained that he had committed the attack because he felt dislike for the governor, although he did not know him personally,” they said.
Chibis is a member of the United Russia ruling party and has governed Murmansk region since 2019.
He was sanctioned by the European Union in 2022 over his support for the Kremlin’s Ukraine offensive.
