Russian campaigners said on Monday that a woman found murdered with multiple stab wounds in the city of Saint Petersburg was a well-known activist who had received threats over her protests for LGBT rights and opposition causes.
Authorities confirmed that they had found the body of a woman in Russia’s second largest city, but did not identify her. “The body of a 41-year-old woman with multiple knife wounds was found on Sunday in southern Saint Petersburg,” the investigative committee said.
Activists and media reports in the city named the victim as Yelena Grigoryeva, a campaigner who is a regular participant in rallies supporting LGBT rights, political prisoners and opposing the annexation of Crimea.
“An activist of democratic, antiwar and LGBT movements, Yelena Grigoryeva was brutally murdered near her house,” opposition campaigner Dinar Idrisov wrote on Facebook, adding that the attack happened on Friday night. “Recently she has frequently been a victim of violence and received murder threats … and filed complaints to the police regarding the violence and the threats, but there was no reaction.”
Saint Petersburg-based online newspaper Fontanka said Grigoryeva was found with knife injuries to her back and face and had apparently been strangled. A suspect was arrested, it reported.
