Assailants Behind Navalny Ally Attack Detained

Assailants behind Navalny ally attack detained, according to reports gathered from local officials in Poland.

Three men have been arrested for allegedly organizing and carrying out an attack on Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov in Lithuania last month, officials announced on Friday.

Volkov, a close ally of late Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, was briefly hospitalized after being repeatedly struck with a hammer outside his home in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius in mid-March.

On Friday, officials in Poland and Lithuania announced that a Belarusian man who organized the attack, as well as two Polish assailants, had been arrested in Poland.

“A Belarusian working for the Russians, who ordered two Poles to carry out the attack against the Navalny ally, has been arrested,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X, formerly Twitter.

“The assailants have already been detained,” Tusk wrote, adding that they were allegedly “linked to radical hooligan circles,” but not providing any additional information.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda announced that “two people suspected of having attacked the head of Russia’s opposition Leonid Volkov were detained in Poland.”

Justas Laucius, Vilnius’ prosecutor, stated that “the suspects were detained on April 3 in Poland, in Warsaw,” adding that the suspects were Polish citizens and that Volkov was targeted “because of his political activities and opinions.”

Saulius Briginas, the deputy head of Lithuania’s criminal police, stated that the suspects were known to Polish police and that during the arrests, “five searches were carried out, which allowed the seizure of objects and proof necessary for the investigation.”

The attack on Volkov occurred nearly a month after Navalny died in an Arctic prison, which Volkov blamed on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Lithuania is home to numerous opposition activists from Russia and Belarus.

READ ALSO: Extinct Snake That Measured Up To 50 Feet Long Discovered In India