[ad_1]
The chief of employees to Aleksei A. Navalny, the Russian opposition chief who died final month in an Arctic penal colony, was attacked with a hammer and tear gasoline exterior his residence in Lithuania’s capital late Tuesday, based on Mr. Navalny’s press secretary, who stated the police and an ambulance had been known as to the scene.
Leonid Volkov, who served as one in all Mr. Navalny’s high organizers, was pulling as much as his home in Vilnius when the assault occurred. Not less than one assailant smashed his automobile window, sprayed him with tear gasoline and started beating him with a hammer, Mr. Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, stated in an announcement launched on X and in different feedback she gave to Russian media.
Mr. Volkov survived the assault.
Pictures posted on-line by one other high aide to Mr. Navalny confirmed Mr. Volkov acutely aware however injured, with a mark on his head and blood streaming from one leg. Different images confirmed the bashed-in window of his automobile, which was parked in a driveway in entrance of a kids’s basketball hoop. Later within the night, the aide posted {a photograph} of Mr. Volkov being loaded into an ambulance and brought to the hospital.
“He started to combat again with the automobile door and together with his legs,” Ms. Yarmysh instructed the exiled Russian information outlet Meduza. “Subsequently, they hit him the place they might — on his legs.”
The id of these behind the assault was unknown as of Tuesday night time, and it was not instantly clear whether or not there was one attacker, or extra.
The assault on Mr. Volkov occurred practically a month after Mr. Navalny’s demise in jail, in circumstances that haven’t but been defined.
The opposition campaigner’s spouse and aides accused President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia of murdering Mr. Navalny. President Biden stated Mr. Putin “and his thugs” have been chargeable for his demise. The Kremlin has denied the allegations. The Russian jail service stated Mr. Navalny had collapsed whereas taking a stroll exterior his cell.
The assault Tuesday night time comes amid broader worries concerning the security of these persevering with Mr. Navalny’s work from overseas. Hours earlier than the assault, Mr. Volkov was requested in an interview with Meduza about the primary dangers for Mr. Navalny’s group. He replied: “The important thing danger is that we are going to all be killed.”
Christo Grozev, a Bulgarian journalist who uncovered the Russian intelligence unit behind a 2020 poisoning of Mr. Navalny in an investigation featured within the Oscar-winning documentary “Navalny,” issued a warning in Russian on X after the assault on Mr. Volkov. “The nice terror of a small dictator has begun,” Mr. Grozev stated. “Activists, journalists and easily free-thinking individuals — watch out. Don’t be afraid, however watch out. Don’t make issues simpler for brainless bandits.”
The Lithuanian police confirmed {that a} Russian citizen, whom they didn’t identify, was overwhelmed exterior his residence in Vilnius shortly after 10 p.m. native time, based on the Baltic information outlet Delfi.
“Information about Leonid’s assault are surprising. Related authorities are at work,” Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s minister of overseas affairs, stated in an announcement on X. “Perpetrators must reply for his or her crime.”
Mr. Volkov, a former software-company govt who ran Mr. Navalny’s nationwide community of regional workplaces in Russia, fled to Lithuania in 2019, as Russian authorities cracked down on Mr. Navalny’s anticorruption group and opened legal instances in opposition to his aides.
In latest days, Mr. Volkov had been main requires “Midday In opposition to Putin,” a plan for Russians who oppose the president to point out up collectively on the nation’s polls at 12 p.m. on the final day of this weekend’s presidential election.
Earlier than his demise, Mr. Navalny had supported the concept as a method for Russians to register resistance with out risking arrest. Mr. Volkov has known as on Russians to execute the plan as a solution to honor the opposition chief’s final needs.
[ad_2]
Source link
