VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) 鈥 A close associate of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny accused Russian President Vladimir Putin鈥檚 鈥渉enchmen鈥 on Wednesday of being behind a brutal attack that left him hospitalized.
Police said an assailant attacked Leonid Volkov on Tuesday as he arrived in a car at his Vilnius home, where he lives in exile. The attacker smashed one of his car鈥檚 windows, sprayed tear gas into his eyes and hit him with a hammer, police said.
Volkov suffered a broken arm "and for now he cannot walk because of the severe bruising from the hammer blows,鈥 according to Navalny鈥檚 The Anti-Corruption Foundation.
He was hospitalized, but later released, and vowed Wednesday to keep up his work.
鈥淲e will work, we will not give up,鈥 43-year-old Volkov said in a short video posted on Telegram on Wednesday, speaking with his arm bandaged and in a sling. 鈥淚t was a characteristic bandit greeting from Putin鈥檚 henchmen.鈥 This seemed to be a reference to both Putin鈥檚 thuggish style and his stint as a deputy mayor of St. Petersburg in the 1990s when it was considered one of the most criminal cities in Russia.
Police have launched a criminal investigation.
Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania鈥檚 foreign minister, called the attack 鈥渟hocking.鈥 He wrote on X, formerly Twitter: 鈥淩elevant authorities are at work. Perpetrators will have to answer for their crime.鈥
President Gitanas Nauseda, speaking to reporters, said: 鈥淚 can only say one thing to Putin 鈥攏obody is afraid of you here.鈥
But the attack in fact underlined a sense of insecurity felt not just by Russian dissidents abroad, but also the many to have fled Belarus seeking safety in Lithuania, Poland and elsewhere.
鈥淯nfortunately Belarussian people can鈥檛 feel safe even being abroad," the Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who lives in exile in Lithuania, said. 鈥淚 think the aim of such attacks is to paralyze people, to paralyze democratic movements.鈥
Pavel Latushka, a former Belarusian culture minister who is now in exile in Warsaw and receives constant threats, said 鈥渋t is evident that all boundaries have been breached, and crimes can be committed within the territories of European Union member countries.鈥
The attack took place nearly a month after Navalny鈥檚 unexplained death in a remote Arctic penal colony. He was and Putin鈥檚 fiercest critic. Navalny had and was serving a 19-year prison term there on the charges of extremism widely .
Opposition figures and Western leaders laid the blame on the Kremlin for his death 鈥 something officials in Moscow vehemently rejected.
His funeral in the Russian capital on March 1 drew thousands of supporters, a rare show of defiance in Putin鈥檚 Russia amid an unabating and ruthless crackdown on dissent, as Navalny鈥檚 widow Yulia
Volkov used to be in charge of Navalny鈥檚 regional offices and election campaigns. Navalny ran for mayor of Moscow in 2013 and sought to challenge Putin in the 2018 presidential election. Volkov left Russia several years ago under pressure from the authorities.
Last year, Volkov and his team launched a project called 鈥淣avalny鈥檚 Campaigning Machine,鈥 aiming to contact as many Russians as possible, either by phone or online, seeking to turn them against Putin ahead of the .
Not long before his death, Navalny urged supporters to flock to the polls at noon on the final day of voting to demonstrate their discontent with the Kremlin. His allies have been actively promoting the strategy, dubbed 鈥淣oon Against Putin,鈥 in recent weeks.
Russian independent news outlet Meduza said it interviewed Volkov several hours before the attack and asked him about risks for Navalny鈥檚 team. 鈥淭he key risk is that we will all be killed,鈥 Meduza quoted Volkov as saying.
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Associated Press writer Vanessa Gera contributed from Warsaw.
