Leonid Volkov, the longtime chief of staff for the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, is recovering in a hospital after being hit with a hammer several times, ABC News reported Wednesday.
Volkov alleges that the assailant worked for the Kremlin. In a video message on Telegram, he claimed someone hit him 15 times with a hammer Tuesday night in the yard of his home in Vilnius, Lithuania, the outlet noted.
NEW: Leonid Volkov, a former top aide to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, is recovering after he was attacked with a hammer by an assailant on Tuesday night near his home in Lithuania, in an assault he blamed on the Kremlin. https://t.co/XoRCLRkkHm
— ABC News (@ABC) March 13, 2024
Volkov said that the attack left him with a broken arm and an injured leg, ABC News reported. Volkov’s friends shared photos that show him with a bruised face and bloody leg, the outlet noted. (RELATED: Putin Threatens Nuclear War If West Deepens Intervention In Russia-Ukraine War)
“It’s painful to walk, but they say there’s no break. Though my arm is broken,” Volkov told his followers on Telegram while wearing an arm sling, according to ABC News. “Oh well, I’ll live. The main thing is to work and we will not surrender.”
“This is obviously a typical, characteristically gangster-ish hello from Putin,” Volkov claimed in the video, according to ABC News. “Hello to you too, [Russian President] Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin],” Volkov added.
Lithuanian authorities publicly sided with Volkov’s narrative of events and have opened an investigation into the affair.
“It is clear that such things are being planned and we should not be surprised. But I want to make it very clear that the services will investigate and, I hope, find the guilty parties. And I can only say one thing to Putin – nobody is afraid of you here,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda told reporters Wednesday in Paris, Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) reported.
Navalny, the Russian opponent of Putin who Volkov once worked for, passed away suddenly Feb. 16 at the age of 47. He reported not feeling well after his walk in a prison colony, according to the Federal Penitentiary Service. Navalny’s body reportedly had bruises on it, according to Telegram. President Joe Biden blamed Putin for the death of Navalny and announced a host of 500 new sanctions against Russia.