In the urban expanse of Tallin, located in the Baltic state of Estonia, news emerged late on Tuesday detailing an assault targeting Leonid Volkov, a prominent strategist closely associated with the deceased opposition luminary, Alexei Navalny. Kira Yarmysh, the erstwhile spokesperson for Navalny, relayed that assailants perpetrated the attack near Volkov’s domicile in Lithuania’s capital. The assailant, wielding a hammer, vandalized the windows of Volkov’s automobile before unleashing tear gas upon him, thereby instigating physical violence.
Subsequently, Volkov received medical attention at a nearby medical facility, as affirmed by Ivan Zhdanov, a confidant of Navalny. This incident unfolded in Vilnius, Lithuania, almost a month subsequent to the enigmatic demise of Navalny within a secluded Arctic detention center. The demise of Putin’s most vehement detractor occurred while he was serving a protracted prison sentence of nineteen years on charges of extremism, widely perceived as politically motivated.
Navalny, renowned as a stalwart anti-corruption crusader and the preeminent opposition figure in Russia, had been incarcerated since January 2021. His return to Moscow, following convalescence in Germany from nerve agent poisoning, instigated his arrest, a deed he attributed to the Kremlin. The Russian government designated Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and its network of regional branches as “extremist organizations” in the same year.
The news of Navalny’s demise, announced by penitentiary officials on February 16, reverberated globally, eliciting condemnation from opposition figures and Western leaders who unequivocally assigned culpability to the Kremlin — a claim adamantly rebuffed by Moscow authorities.
The funeral procession in Moscow on March 1 witnessed a remarkable outpouring of support, a rare spectacle of defiance in Putin’s Russia amidst an unrelenting and draconian crackdown on dissension. Supporters continued to flock to Navalny’s final resting place in southeastern Moscow for days subsequent to the commemorative ceremonies. Yulia Navalny, the widow of the deceased politician, pledged to perpetuate her late husband’s legacy.
Volkov, hitherto responsible for managing Navalny’s regional offices and electoral endeavors, had emigrated from Russia several years ago amidst mounting pressure from governmental authorities.
In recent times, Volkov and his cohort initiated a project dubbed “Navalny’s Campaigning Machine” with the objective of engaging with a broad spectrum of Russian citizens via telephonic or online channels, endeavoring to sway public sentiment against Putin in the run-up to the presidential election scheduled for March 15-17.
In the twilight moments preceding his demise, Navalny had implored his supporters to converge at polling stations at midday on Sunday, the final day of balloting, as a manifestation of their discontent with the Kremlin. His allies actively espoused this stratagem, christened “Noon Against Putin,” in the lead-up to the electoral process.
The independent Russian news outlet, Meduza, conducted an interview with Volkov mere hours before the assault, wherein he articulated concerns regarding the peril confronting Navalny’s cadre. “The primary peril lies in the potential obliteration of our collective existence,” Volkov opined, as quoted by Meduza.
Gabrielius Landsbergis, the Foreign Minister of Lithuania, took to the microblogging platform X, previously known as Twitter, to express his dismay over the assault on Volkov, characterizing the development as “alarming” and emphasizing the imperative for the perpetrators to be held accountable for their transgressions.