Navalny ally Leonid Volkov hurt in hammer attack outside home in Lithuania
- Leonid Volkov released from hospital with a broken arm after ‘shocking’ attack in Vilnius
- Assault comes almost a month after Alexei Navalny’s unexplained death in an Arctic prison
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 President Vladimir Putin in a video posted on Telegram early Wednesday 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.
Volkov, 43, is one of Russia’s most prominent opposition figures and was a close confidant of Navalny, working as the late leader’s ex-chief of staff and as chair of his Anti-Corruption Foundation until 2023.
In his post on Wednesday, Volkov said he was struck 15 times on the leg during the attack.