The top strategist of late Russian opposition leader Navalny is attacked in Lithuania

Leonid Volkov, the top strategist of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was attacked in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius.

Attack details: The assailant reportedly smashed a window of Volkov’s car, sprayed tear gas into his eyes, and began hitting him with a hammer.
* Volkov was later taken to a hospital, according to another of Navalny’s allies, Ivan Zhdanov.

Context of the attack: This incident occurred nearly a month after Navalny’s unexplained death in a remote Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year term on charges of extremism widely seen as politically motivated.
* Navalny, known for his anti-corruption campaigns, had been jailed since January 2021 after returning to Moscow from Germany where he was recuperating from a nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin.
* His death in February 2023 sent shockwaves around the globe, with many opposition figures and Western leaders blaming the Kremlin, although officials in Moscow staunchly denied these accusations.

Volkov’s role: Volkov was responsible for Navalny’s regional offices and election campaigns.
* Not long ago, Volkov and his team launched “Navalny’s Campaigning Machine”, a project aimed at communicating with as many Russians as possible to turn sentiment against Putin ahead of the March 2023 presidential election.

Reaction to the attack: Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis expressed shock at the news of the attack, promising the “perpetrators will have to answer for their crime”.
View original article on NPR
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