Opposition activist shot in the mouth near Moscow

A Russian anti-corruption activist was attacked by a group of men who shot him in the mouth with a stun gun at the weekend, Reuters wrote Monday.

Albert Pchelintsev, 38, is the head of "Against Corruption, Lies and Dishonour", a group which investigates corruption by officials working in the local government of Khimki, a town just outside Moscow's city limits.

A band of up to five men attacked Pchelintsev as he was leaving a train and shouted, "You won't be able to speak out now for a long time," an environmental organisation for the Moscow region reported on its site citing witnesses.

The assailants were still at large, it added.

Saturday's attack comes less than two weeks after Chechen human rights activist Natalia Estemirova was killed, triggering worldwide outrage, and several days after the body of activist Andrei Kulagin was found in a sand pit in north-west Russia.

The liberal oppositional organization The Other Russia said Pchelintsev had been receiving threats "for some time" since he openly spoke out against Khimki Mayor Vladimir Strelchenko, and added that human rights activists in the region regularly suffer attacks.

Medvedev, cultivating an image as a liberal, has pledged to increase openness in society and reduce bribery and lawlessness, though critics say there have been very few substantial changes so far.