An exiled ally of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been attacked outside his Lithuanian home with a ‘hammer’ and ‘tear gas’, it has emerged.
Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s close ally and top strategist, was attacked near his residence in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital city, on Tuesday night.
The assailant smashed a window of Volkov’s car, sprayed tear gas into his eyes and started hitting him with a hammer, Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said.
Photos of Volkov’s injuries revealed he suffered a black eye, a red mark on his forehead and bleeding on his leg, which had soaked through his jeans.
Volkov is now at home and police and an ambulance are reportedly on the way.
The attack comes almost a month after Navalny’s death in an Arctic prison, which Volkov blamed directly on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Leonid Volkov, (pictured in 2022) an ally of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been attacked outside his Lithuanian home with a ‘hammer’ and ‘tear gas’, it has emerged
Volkov was a close ally of Alexei Navalny, (pictured during is 2017 trial in in the Tverskoy court of the city in Moscow) working as the late leader’s ex-chief of staff and as chair of his Anti-Corruption Foundation until 2023
‘Leonid Volkov has just been attacked outside his house,’ Yarmysh said Tuesday night. ‘Someone broke a car window and sprayed tear gas in his eyes, after which the attacker started hitting Leonid with a hammer.’
She did not say where Volkov lived, but Russia‘s independent Mediazona news outlet said he was currently in Lithuania.
The Delfi news website cited Lithuanian police as confirming that a ‘Russian citizen was beaten outside his home’ on Tuesday night.
Volkov was a close ally of Navalny, working as the late leader’s ex-chief of staff and as chair of his Anti-Corruption Foundation until 2023.
Navalny had been jailed since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow to face certain arrest after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin.
His Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his regional offices were designated as ‘extremist organisations’ by the Russian government that same year.
Volkov used to be in charge of the regional offices. He left Russia under pressure from the authorities.
Alexei Navalny is seen on a screen via a video link from the IK-3 penal colony above the Arctic circle during a hearing of his complaint on restrictions placed on which books and reading material he can access in prison, at the Supreme Court in Moscow on January 11, 2024
Navalny’s death, reported by penitentiary officials on Feb. 16, sent shockwaves around the globe. His mother Lyudmila Navalnaya (left) pays last respects next to the open casket of her son at the Borisovskoye Cemetery, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 1, 2024
The mothers of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his widow Yulia Navalnaya, Lyudmila and Alla, stand in front of Navalny’s grave on March 2, 2024, the day after his funeral at Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow
Navalny’s death, reported by penitentiary officials on Feb. 16, sent shockwaves around the globe, with opposition figures and Western leaders laying the blame on the Kremlin – something officials in Moscow vehemently rejected.
Not long before he died, Navalny urged supporters to flock to the polls at noon on Sunday, the final day of voting, to demonstrate their discontent with the Kremlin.
His allies have been actively promoting the strategy, dubbed ‘Noon Against Putin,’ in recent weeks.
Last year, Volkov and his team launched a project called ‘Navalny’s Campaigning Machine,’ with the goal of talking to as many Russians as possible, either by phone or online, and turning them against Putin ahead of the March 15 to 17 presidential election.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
