Lithuania points finger at Russia for hammer attack on Navalny aide

Vilnius — Lithuania blamed Moscow on Wednesday for hammer-wielding assailant’s attack on an exiled top aide to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny outside the aide’s home in Vilnius.

President Gitanas Nauseda said the attack on Navalny aide Leonid Volkov was clearly pre-planned and tied in with other provocations against Lithuania, which is a member of Nato and the EU.

“I can only say one thing to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin: nobody is afraid of you here,” Nauseda said.

Lithuania’s state security department counterintelligence agency said the attack was probably carried out to stop the Russian opposition from influencing Russia’s presidential election.

Russia’s embassy in Vilnius wasn’t immediately able to comment on the accusations.

Putin, in power for nearly a quarter of a century, hopes to extend his rule by a further six years in an election due to take place in the next few days.

The Kremlin views Navalny’s team as “the most dangerous opposition force capable of exerting real influence on Russia's internal processes”, the Lithuanian security agency said.

Volkov himself pointed the finger directly at Putin. In a post on Telegram, he said he had returned home on Wednesday morning after a night in hospital, having suffered a broken arm and injuries from about 15 hammer blows to the leg.

“This is an obvious, typical criminal ‘hello’ from Putin, from criminal Petersburg,” Volkov wrote.

“We will keep on working and we will not surrender,” he added. “It’s hard but we’ll handle it ... It’s good to know I’m still alive.”

Navalny, Putins most prominent critic, died last month in an Arctic prison. Russian authorities say he died of natural causes. His followers believe he was killed by the authorities, which the Kremlin denies.

‘Very dark times’

In an interview hours before Tuesday night’s assault, Volkov said leaders of Navalny’s movement in exile feared for their lives.

“They know that Putin not only kills people inside Russia, he also kills people outside Russia,” Volkov said. “We live in very dark times”.

Former Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh posted images of Volkov with a bruise on his forehead, blood flowing from a leg wound, and a vehicle with damage to the driver’s door and window.

“Volkov has just been attacked outside his house. Someone broke a car window and sprayed tear gas in his eyes, after which the attacker started hitting Leonid with a hammer,” she wrote on social media platform X.

Lithuanian foreign affairs minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said the perpetrators must “answer for their crime”.

Lithuania’s police commissioner Renatas Pozela said officers were devoting “huge resources” to investigate the assault.

He said the attack did not mean that Lithuania was no longer safe. The Baltic nation of 2.8-million people, which borders Russia and Belarus, has become a base for Russian and Belarusian opposition figures.

“This is a one-time event which we will successfully solve ... Our people should not be afraid because of this”, said Pozela.

Reuters