Leonid Volkov, a close ally of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was assaulted outside his home in Vilnius on Tuesday, an incident that sparked an uproar from the Lithuanian government.
Volkov vowed to continue his struggle against Russian President Vladimir Putin in a video posted on Telegram early yesterday after he was discharged from hospital.
“We will work and we will not give up,” he said, adding that the attack, which left him with a broken arm, was a “characteristic bandit hello” from Putin’s henchmen.
Photo: AFP / Courtesy of X user @a_biryukova
Volkov, 43, is one of Russia’s most prominent opposition figures and was a close confidant of Navalny, working as the late leader’s chief of staff and as chair of his Anti-Corruption Foundation until last year.
In his post, Volkov said he was struck 15 times on the leg during the attack.
“The leg somehow is OK, it hurts to walk... However, I broke my arm,” Volkov said. “They literally wanted to make a schnitzel out of me.”
Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh earlier said that “someone broke a car window and sprayed tear gas in his eyes” before hitting him with a hammer.
Volkov’s wife, Anna Biryukova, earlier shared photographs of her husband’s injuries on social media, including a black eye, a red mark on his forehead and blood on his leg, which had soaked through his jeans.
Lithuanian police spokesman Ramunas Matonis told reporters that a Russian citizen was assaulted near his home in the capital, Vilnius, at about 10pm.
The suspects had not been identified, he said.
The attack comes almost a month after Navalny’s death in an arctic prison, which Volkov blamed on Putin, and days before elections set to extend the Kremlin chief’s stay in power.
The day before he was attacked, Volkov wrote on social media: “Putin killed Navalny. And many others before that.”
Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis condemned Volkov’s beating in a social media post.
“News about Leonid’s assault are shocking. Relevant authorities are at work. Perpetrators will have to answer for their crime,” he wrote on X.
NATO member Lithuania is home to many Russian exiles and has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine throughout Russia’s invasion.
Russian dissidents who have spoken out against the Kremlin often complain of being targeted with threats and attacks.
Volkov told independent Russian news outlet Meduza hours before he was beaten on Tuesday that he was worried for his safety after Navalny’s death.
“The key risk now is that we will all be killed. Why, it’s a pretty obvious thing,” the outlet quoted him as saying.
STEPPING UP: Diminished US polar science presence mean opportunities for the UK and other countries, although China or Russia might also fill that gap, a researcher said The UK’s flagship polar research vessel is to head to Antarctica next week to help advance dozens of climate change-linked science projects, as Western nations spearhead studies there while the US withdraws. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, a state-of-the-art ship named after the renowned British naturalist, would aid research on everything from “hunting underwater tsunamis” to tracking glacier melt and whale populations. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the country’s polar research institute, the 15,000-tonne icebreaker — boasting a helipad, and various laboratories and gadgetry — is pivotal to the UK’s efforts to assess climate change’s impact there. “The saying goes
Floods on Sunday trapped people in vehicles and homes in Spain as torrential rain drenched the northeastern Catalonia region, a day after downpours unleashed travel chaos on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. Local media shared videos of roaring torrents of brown water tearing through streets and submerging vehicles. National weather agency AEMET decreed the highest red alert in the province of Tarragona, warning of 180mm of rain in 12 hours in the Ebro River delta. Catalan fire service spokesman Oriol Corbella told reporters people had been caught by surprise, with people trapped “inside vehicles, in buildings, on ground floors.” Santa Barbara Mayor Josep Lluis
Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018. The detentions, which come amid renewed China-US tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded rare earth export controls last week, drew condemnation from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on Sunday called for the immediate release of the pastors. Pastor Jin Mingri (金明日), founder of Zion Church, an unofficial “house church” not sanctioned by the Chinese government, was detained at his home in the southern city of Beihai on Friday evening, said
TICKING CLOCK: A path to a budget agreement was still possible, the president’s office said, as a debate on reversing an increase of the pension age carries on French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday was racing to find a new prime minister within a two-day deadline after the resignation of outgoing French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu tipped the country deeper into political crisis. The presidency late on Wednesday said that Macron would name a new prime minister within 48 hours, indicating that the appointment would come by this evening at the latest. Lecornu told French television in an interview that he expected a new prime minister to be named — rather than early legislative elections or Macron’s resignation — to resolve the crisis. The developments were the latest twists in three tumultuous
RSS