By Andrius Sytas
VILNIUS (Reuters) -Lithuanian police said on Wednesday they had launched an investigation into an assault on Leonid Volkov, the long-time aide to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, after he was attacked outside his home in Vilnius.
Volkov was attacked on Tuesday with tear gas and a hammer, suffering among other things a broken arm, a bruise to his forehead and a leg wound, former Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said.
Volkov said in a Telegram post he was back home from hospital on Wednesday after receiving treatment, adding he had been hit about 15 times on his leg with a hammer.
The investigation was launched into a “minor health impairment”, a Lithuania police spokesperson told Reuters, while adding that no suspects had yet been identified.
Several police units including the elite anti-terrorism unit had been investigating the crime scene near Volkov’s house on the Lithuanian capital’s northern outskirts overnight.
Volkov has repeatedly angered Russian authorities by organising anti-Kremlin protests from his base in Vilnius and demanding the release of Navalny from prison when he was still alive.
The U.N. human rights expert on Russia said on Monday that Navalny’s Feb. 16 death was Moscow’s responsibility as he was either killed in prison or died from detention conditions that amounted to torture.
Russian authorities say Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, died in an Arctic prison of natural causes. Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, has accused Putin of having him killed, an accusation the Kremlin rejects.
The U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania, Kara McDonald, said on social media X she was “shocked” by the news of the attack on Volkov.
“His resilience and courage in the face of recent attempts to silence and intimidate him are inspiring. The Navalny team remains an outspoken voice against Kremlin repression and brutality”, she said.
Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis on Tuesday called the incident shocking and said the perpetrators must “answer for their crime”.
Several members of Navalny’s political group, the Anti-Corruption Foundation, are living in EU and NATO member Lithuania after fleeing Russia.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, writing by Stine Jacobsen, editing by Terje Soslvik and Nick Macfie)
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