Hammer as a murder weapon

Attacks on Navalny confidant: Russian in custody

Leonid Volkov

(Bild: APA/AFP/INA FASSBENDER)

Six months have passed since the hammer attack on Leonid Volkov, a confidant of the deceased Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Now the Polish public prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into a suspected perpetrator from Russia.

The man known as Anatoli B. is charged with three criminal offenses, including politically motivated bodily harm, the Polish General Prosecutor's Office announced on Friday

In addition to B., six Polish and one Belarusian citizen are also under investigation. According to the investigating authority, the Russian was arrested on Friday last week. He was initially remanded in custody for three months. Two Poles and a Belarusian are also in custody.

Volkov after the horrific attack

(Bild: APA/AFP/Courtesy of X user @a_biryukova)

Attacked outside his home in Vilnius
In March, a few weeks after Navalny's death, the Russian opposition activist Volkov was attacked several times with a hammer outside his home in Lithuania's capital Vilnius. The 43-year-old had to be treated briefly in hospital. After the attack, the Lithuanian secret service stated that it was probably an attack organized by Russia.

According to the Russian authorities, Navalny, the most prominent Russian critic of the Kremlin, died on February 16 in a Russian penal camp in the Arctic, where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence. Navalny's supporters and numerous Western politicians blame the Russian leadership and President Vladimir Putin for the opposition figure's death.

Several attacks on opposition members
At the opening of the investigation into the attack on the Navalny confidant Volkov, the Polish General Prosecutor's Office also stated that it was looking into several attacks on Russian opposition members linked to the anti-corruption foundation founded by Navalny. These attacks had taken place in Europe as well as in North and South America.

Volkov himself confirmed his accusations against Leonid Newslin, a former business partner of oligarch and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Newslin had exchanged information with the alleged perpetrator B. and organized several attacks against him, explained Volkov in the online service X.

Perpetrators should hand over Volkov to the Russian secret service
Volkov had already made his accusations against Newslin a week ago on Friday. Newslin had been prepared to pay 250,000 dollars to perpetrators who were to make me disabled and hand me over to the (Russian secret service) FSB." Newslin rejected the allegations in the online service Telegram as "absurd" and "groundless".

His former business partner Khodorkovsky also defended Newslin against the accusations - and pointed out that the Russian state broadcaster RT had already spread similar accusations against Newslin and that it could therefore be a "provocation" by the FSB secret service.