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Leonid Volkov, the previous chief of workers for late Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny, was hospitalized Tuesday after being overwhelmed by an assailant armed with a hammer. Volkov is blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin for the assault.
Police stated Volkov, 43, had simply arrived at his residence in Vilnius, Lithuania when an attacker smashed one in all his automobile home windows, sprayed tear fuel into his eyes and hit him with a hammer. A prison investigation into the assault is underway.
Photos taken of Volkov instantly after the assault have been posted to Telegram by Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.
The pictures present the previous chief of workers with bruising on his face and blood working down his leg. Other pictures confirmed damaged glass on the bottom beside a automobile with its window smashed and Volkov on a gurney being loaded into an ambulance.
Photo of Leonid Volkov’s bruised face and a picture of him being loaded into an ambulance after he was attacked outdoors his residence in Lithuania on March 12, 2024.
Telegram/Ivan Zhdanov
Volkov suffered a damaged arm “and for now he cannot walk because of the severe bruising from the hammer blows,” based on The Anti-Corruption Foundation, of which Volkov used to function chairman.
Volkov presently lives in exile in Lithuania for security causes.
On Wednesday, Volkov released a short video saying the assault received’t discourage him from persevering with his political activism, regardless of one in all “Putin’s henchmen” making an attempt to “make a schnitzel out of me.”
The bloodied legs of Leonid Volkov after he was attacked in Lithuania.
Telegram/Ivan Zhdanov
“We will work, we will not give up,” Volkov stated within the Telegram video, talking along with his arm in a sling. “It was a characteristic bandit greeting from Putin’s henchmen.”
Volkov additionally inspired voters within the upcoming Russian presidential election to take part in “Noon Against Putin.” This deliberate protest calls on residents to reach on the polling stations on the final day of voting, March 17, at 12 p.m. to both vote towards Putin or spoil their poll.
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Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s overseas minister, known as the assault on Volkov “shocking.” He wrote on X (previously Twitter): “Relevant authorities are at work. Perpetrators will have to answer for their crime.”
Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nauseda stated there may be “no doubt” the assault was deliberate, and related the assault on Voldov to a current string of desecrations of Lithuanian monuments, CNN reports.
“There is no doubt that such things are planned. Look at the recent increase in desecration of the Lithuanian flag, incidents with monuments,” he stated, including that authorities will “assess, investigate and hopefully find the guilty persons.”
“And I can only say one thing to Putin – nobody is afraid of you here,” Nauseda stated.
The assault occurred practically a month after Navalny’s unexplained loss of life in a distant Arctic penal colony. Navalny was Russia’s best-known opposition determine and Putin’s fiercest critic. He had been jailed since January 2021 and was serving a 19-year jail time period for crimes of extremism, broadly seen as politically motivated costs.
Opposition figures and Western leaders together with Justin Trudeau laid the blame on the Kremlin for Navalny’s loss of life — one thing officers in Moscow vehemently rejected.
Navalny’s funeral within the Russian capital on March 1 drew hundreds of supporters, a uncommon present of defiance in Putin’s Russia amid an unabating and ruthless crackdown on dissent, as Navalny’s widow Yulia vowed to proceed her late husband’s work.
Volkov was in control of Navalny’s regional workplaces and election campaigns. Navalny ran for mayor of Moscow in 2013 and sought to problem Putin within the 2018 presidential election. Volkov left Russia a number of years in the past below strain from the authorities.
Russian impartial information outlet Meduza stated it interviewed Volkov a number of hours earlier than the assault and he stated he was fearful for his security.
“The key risk now is that we will all be killed,” Meduza quoted Volkov as saying.
The assault comes days earlier than Russia’s presidential election on March 15-17 the place Putin is anticipated to win a fifth time period.
— with information from the Associated Press
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
