the strange ambush which targeted Navalny’s former right-hand man – L’Express

Tuesday, March 12, it is after 10 p.m. In the streets of the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, a man is attacked just a few meters from his home. Equipped with a hammer, the attackers, whose identities remain unknown for the time being, attacked their victim, whom they sprayed with tear gas. No less than 15 blows were given to him. We quickly learned that the man was none other than Leonid Volkov, a Russian opponent in exile, former Duma deputy, member of the Solidarnost movement and… former right-hand man of Alexeï Navalny, who died at the age of 47 years in an Arctic penal colony where he was serving a nineteen-year prison sentence for “extremism”.

Leonid Volkov, 43, who served as chief of staff for Navalny’s 2018 presidential campaign, was immediately taken to the emergency room, where he spent a few hours. Around 1 a.m., his wife wants to be reassuring.

On her X account (formerly Twitter), Anna Birioukova indicates that the couple has returned “home”. Leonid Volkov survived this attack. But you don’t come out completely unscathed. Supporting photos, Anna Birioukova reveals her husband’s black eye, but also her forehead marked with a red mark and her legs stained with blood. According to her, the Russian political opponent cannot walk and his arm is broken.

Leonid Volkov, yet another victim of Russian power?

At the same time, Leonid Volkov gives his news on his Telegram channel. In a one-minute video, arms in a sling, the Russian, exiled in Lithuania since 2019, congratulates himself on being still “alive”, and sums up the violence of his attack with one formula: “They literally wanted to transform me into a Schnitzel [escalope à la viennoise].” But one question remains unanswered: who are these “they”?

For him, there is no doubt: the Putin administration is behind this ambush. Still on the Telegram application, Leonid Volkov insists that the attack of which he was the victim is “typical” of the modus operandi of the Kremlin leader’s henchmen. The day before the attack, he had notably stated on social networks that “Putin [avait] killed Navalny”, specifying: “And many other people before that.”

Lithuanian police announced on Wednesday March 13 that they had opened an investigation the day after the attack. “It is likely that the attack [contre Leonid Volkov] “an operation organized and implemented by Russia”, according to an official press release.

A determined opponent

Since the death of his friend on February 16, Leonid Volkov has been more worried than ever for his safety. The exile knows that he is actively sought by Vladimir Putin’s henchmen. His participation in the organization of numerous demonstrations against Russian power earned him an ad vitam aeternam filing by the Kremlin services. Hours before his attack on Tuesday, he spoke to independent Russian-language media Meduza, saying he feared that all opponents of the Russian regime would end up being killed.

But whatever, for him as for others, the fight continues. “We have worked and we will not give up,” he was quick to emphasize on Telegram after his attack. With the same determination that we saw in him the day after the death of Alexeï Navalny, when he called on the supporters of a free Russia to “not be discouraged”, because “that is what[Alexeï Navalny] expects of us from now on”. Before concluding solemnly: “What he has devoted his life to must prevail.”