An exiled ally of Alexei Navalny has vowed to “never give up” in the fight against Vladimir Putin to ensure the late Russian opposition leader’s sacrifice “is not in vain”.
Leonid Volkov, speaking after a horrific hammer and tear gas attack outside his home in Lithuania in March, described his friend’s death as an “open wound in our hearts”.
Navalny died at the age of 47 in an Arctic prison camp in February.
Volkov insisted there was “no magic trick” to toppling Putin, but called on Ukraine’s Western allies to send more weapons to the front and not consider negotiating with the Russian leader.
He told the bbc: “If there are 50 things we can do, we have to do all 50, if you do 49, that is not enough, because it is the biggest threat to the world that we have seen in 80 years.”
Leonid Volkov, top adviser to Alexei Navalny, speaking in March. Navalny’s exiled ally has vowed to “never give up” in the fight against Vladimir Putin to ensure the late Russian opposition leader’s sacrifice “is not in vain”.
Navalny photographed at a rally in St. Petersburg in 2012. He died at the age of 47 in an Arctic prison camp in February.
Vladimir Putin pictured yesterday at a press conference in China. Volkov insisted there was “no magic trick” to toppling Putin, but he called on Ukraine’s Western allies to send more weapons to the front and not consider negotiating with the Russian leader.
Navalny’s assistant accepted that there was “no replacement” for the late politician, but that his wife Yulia Navalnaya was considered by “everyone” to be the new “charismatic” leader of the opposition movement.
Volkov added that Navalnaya did not want to be seen as the heir to her husband, who many allies, branded as extremists by authorities, believe was murdered by Putin.
Regarding the Russian leader, Volkov noted that he had no borders and that he was killing people across the continent, on the front lines and even in Russia.
He added that Putin’s recent shows of force were a façade and urged Western leaders not to be fooled by it.
The attack on Volkov’s home in Vilnius, Lithuania, took place on March 12 and saw an attacker break a window of his car, spray tear gas in his eyes and begin hitting him with a hammer, according to Navalny’s spokeswoman. Kira Yarmysh.
Photos of Volkov’s injuries revealed that he had a black eye, a red mark on his forehead and bleeding on his leg, which had soaked through his jeans.
The opponent claimed that the message behind the attack on his property had been that his enemies knew where he was and could harm him if they wanted to.
Volkov was a close ally of Navalny, serving as the late leader’s former chief of staff and as president of his Anti-Corruption Foundation until 2023.
Yulia Navalnaya (pictured, in Berlin on election day in March), widow of Alexey Navalny, believes the Kremlin ordered her husband’s murder.
Photos of Volkov’s injuries after his home was attacked in March revealed that he suffered a black eye and a red mark on his forehead.
Volkov was a close ally of Alexei Navalny (pictured during his 2017 trial at Moscow City’s Tverskoy Court) and worked as the late leader’s former chief of staff and as president of his Anti-Corruption Foundation until 2023.
Navalny had been jailed since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow to face certain arrest after recovering in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
Its Anti-Corruption Foundation and its regional offices were designated as “extremist organizations” by the Russian government that same year.
Volkov used to be in charge of regional offices. He left Russia under pressure from the authorities.
Navalny’s death, reported by prison officials on February 16, sent shockwaves around the world.
Russian authorities say Navalny died in the Arctic prison of natural causes, but his wife Yulia Navalnaya accused Putin of ordering him to be killed, an accusation the Kremlin vehemently rejects.
U.S. intelligence recently backed Putin’s claims and determined that the Russian president likely did not order the opposition politician to be killed, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.
However, the Journal said Washington had not absolved the Russian leader of overall responsibility for Navalny’s death, given that the opposition politician had been targeted by Russian authorities for years, imprisoned on charges that the West said were motivated policies and had been poisoned in 2020 with a nerve. agent.
The Kremlin denies state involvement in the 2020 poisoning.
The assailant broke a window of Volkov’s car (pictured), sprayed tear gas in his eyes and began hitting him with a hammer, Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said.
Alexei Navalny seen on a screen via video link from the IK-3 penal colony above the Arctic Circle during a hearing of his complaint about restrictions placed on what books and reading material he can access in prison, at the Court Moscow Supreme Court in January. 11, 2024
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny is detained by Russian police officers during a march to protest alleged impunity by law enforcement in central Moscow on June 12, 2019.
The mothers of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his widow Yulia Navalnaya, Lyudmila and Alla, in front of Navalny’s grave on March 2, 2024, the day after his funeral at Moscow’s Borisovskoye cemetery.
Reuters could not independently verify the Journal’s report, which cited sources saying the finding had been “widely accepted within the intelligence community and shared by multiple agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of Intelligence National and the Department of State”. intelligence unit.’
The US assessment was based on a variety of information, including some classified intelligence, and an analysis of public facts, including the timing of Navalny’s death and how it overshadowed Putin’s re-election in March, the newspaper said, citing some of its sources.
He quoted Volkov as calling the US findings naïve and ridiculous.
