One of Russia's leading journalists, Oleg Kashin of Kommersant was beaten violently on November 6, 2010 near his home in Moscow. After spending months in a hospital in induced coma and recovering in Israel's medical centers, he returned back home and back to work a week ago, on February 6, 2011. Russian president and chief prosecutor personally supervised the investigation, and found... kind of nothing. Regardless of their findings, our sympathies (for the beating) and congratulations (for the successful recovery) go to Oleg, who became the only real journalistic victim of year 2010 in Russia. Usually, Russian nationalists, government officials, Chechen terrorists, and even President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin are blamed for beating, murdering, and threatening journalists. While the murders and beatings inflicted by Putin remain urban legends, the real accomplishment to celebrate is the fact that--for the first time in years--no journalists were killed in Russia!

The year was less "successful" for a large list of other countries where 79 journalists were killed, 70 of them while on duty. The countries are: Thailand, Somali, Nigeria, Angola, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Phillipines, Belarus, India, Yemen, Uganda, Greece, Brasil, Lebanon, and Rwanda. The Committee to Protect Journalists has the report. YouTube has Oleg's beating (captured on security cameras):