Lithuania blames Russia for hammer attack on exiled Navalny aide

[1/3]Leonid Volkov, the top aide of Alexei Navalny, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Vilnius, Lithuania March 12, 2024. REUTERS/Gerhard Mey/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab’VERY DARK TIMES’In an interview with Reuters 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 of Russia,” Volkov said in the interview. “We live in very dark times”.

Former Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh posted images of Volkov with a bruise on his forehead, blood coming 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.

A lone police car could be seen on patrol on Wednesday afternoon outside Volkov’s house, in a pine forest on the outskirts of the Lithuanian capital.

Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said the perpetrators must “answer for their crime”.

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

He said the attack did not mean that Lithiania 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.

The U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania, Kara McDonald, condemned the attack on Volkov.

“His resilience and courage in the face of recent attempts to silence and intimidate him are inspiring. The Navalny team remains an outspoken voice against Kremlin repression and brutality,” she said on X.

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Reporting by Andrius Sytas
Editing by Gareth Jones

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Andrius covers politics and general news in the Baltics – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the three key states along the NATO’s eastern flank, the staunchest supporters of Ukraine and the most vocal critics of Russia in NATO and the European Union. He wrote stories on everything from China pressuring German companies to leave Taiwan-supporting Lithuania to Iraqi migrants hiding in the forest at the Belarus border to a farmer burning grain for heat during the energy crisis.

Source link : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/navalny-aide-suffers-minor-health-impairment-attack-lithuania-police-say-2024-03-13/

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Publish date : 2024-03-13 07:00:00

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