Navalny's chief of staff attacked with hammer outside Lithuania home

Volkov's legs were hit with a hammer about 15 times but they were not broken, he said.

Published: March 13, 2024 8:09am

The chief of staff to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was attacked with a hammer and tear gas outside of his home in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, per Navalny’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh.

Leonid Volkov, one of Navalny's top organizers, was in his car when someone broke the window, sprayed him with tear gas and beat him with a hammer, Yarmysh said Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter. Police and medical professionals had been called to the scene.

Volkov has since posted a video on the social media messaging platform Telegram showing his face bruised and his arm in a sling.

Ivan Zhdanov, another former Navalny aide, posted pictures on Telegram showing Volkov's bloody legs and his broken car window, as well as a photo of Volkov being loaded into an ambulance.

Volkov's legs were hit with a hammer about 15 times but they were not broken, he said, per Russian outlet Meduza.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis called the assault "shocking" and vowed, "Perpetrators will have to answer for their crime."

The assault comes after Navalny's death last month in a Russian penal colony.

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