A Russian election observer who exposed several instances of mass rigging following last December's Duma parliamentary poll has been assaulted outside his home in Moscow, just weeks before the start of the court case against the alleged election riggers. In hospital with cerebral concussion, it looks as though Grigori Belonuchkin might not be well enough testify in the case.

One of our Observers for Russia, Belonuchkin was knocked to the ground and kicked in the head repeatedly by two youths on Tuesday. The social activist, who is used to being called upon for advice, says that when he came out of his house to talk to the young enquirers, they immediately attacked him. Belonuchkin acted as an electoral monitor for the Russian Communist Party in several polling stations in the Moscow suburb of Dolgoprudny, though he is not himself a member of the party. Following the vote, he sent us photographic evidence of electoral fraud, which we published on Dec 5. However, despite strong proof of malpractice, the town's prosecutor's office refused to take up the case. Belonuchkin decided to initiate it himself, and was called to testify on the 15^th of this month - exactly two weeks from Tuesday.

So far, we haven't been able to get in touch with Grigori as he's still in hospital. We'll publish more on this story as soon as we have further information.