Leonid Volkov, the former chief of staff to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said on March 13 that he would continue his work after being attacked with a hammer and tear gas by an unknown assailant at his home in Lithuania the previous day.
Volkov was one of the top members of Navalny's presidential campaign in 2018 and chaired his Anti-Corruption Foundation, but has lived since 2020 in Lithuania.
In a video posted on his Telegram channel after being released from the hospital, Volkov said "I will keep working and I won't give up."
Volkov said that he had been hit 15 times with a hammer, and his arm had been broken in what he called a "characteristic gangster greeting from Putin."
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said that the "news about Leonid's assault (is) shocking."
"Relevant authorities are at work. Perpetrators will have to answer for their crime," he added.
Volkov relocated from Russia to Lithuania in 2020 after Russian authorities began an investigation of the Anti-Corruption Foundation. He was later added to a wanted persons list in Russia.
Navalny, Putin's main political opponent, died on Feb. 16 in a penal colony in the Russian town of Kharp, Yamal Nenets Autonomous District.
Oleg Sukhov
(Updated: )
