GRAPHIC PHOTOS: Navalny's Former Chief of Staff Hospitalized After Attacked With Hammer
Leonid Volkov, the former chief of staff for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was attacked with a hammer outside his home in Vilnius.
March 12 2024, Published 7:15 p.m. ET
Leonid Volkov, the former chief of staff for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was assaulted outside of his home today in Lithuania, RadarOnline.com has learned.
A spokesperson for Volkov issued a statement on Tuesday, revealing he was attacked outside of his residence.
"Someone broke a car window and sprayed tear gas in his eyes, after which the attacker started hitting Leonid with a hammer," Navalny's spox Kira Yarmysh wrote. "Police and ambulance are on their way to him."
Director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, Ivan Zhdanov, said the activist was struck in his legs and arms. He is currently being hospitalized after being carried away on a stretcher.
Graphic photos showed him with a bloody calf and drenched sock as well as a puffy and red face. The driver's side window of his Volkswagen had also been completely shattered.
"Someone broke a car window and sprayed tear gas in his eyes, after which the attacker started hitting Leonid with a hammer," Navalny's spokesperson announced via X, formerly Twitter.
Navalny, a prominent anti-Putin figure, died last month in a Russian prison, igniting theories that he was murdered ahead of Russia's presidential election. The Kremlin, however, has denied any involvement in his death.
Some of his supporters have honored his life with makeshift memorials years after hundreds had gathered in the city center of Nizhny Novgorod to protest against the arrest of the opposition political leader in 2021 on charges of extremism.
Navalny, who criticized the country's invasion of Ukraine, died at 47 after becoming unwell on a walk behind bars and falling unconscious while serving his prison sentence, according to the Russian prison service.
Navalny, a prominent anti-Putin figure, died last month in a Russian prison.
The official cause of death is unconfirmed and his team had accused authorities of lying to slow down the process of his body being returned to his family, sparking fresh outrage and protests.
"Alexey Navalny was murdered. His death occurred on February 16 at 2:17 p.m. local time, according to the official message to Alexey's mother," Yarmysh wrote via social media. "We demand that Alexey Navalny's body be handed over to his family immediately."
Thousands defied Putin to pay their respects to Navalny at his funeral.
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More than a week after he died in an Artic prison, Russian authorities released the body of Navalny to his mother, it was revealed. It has been claimed he died of natural causes.
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After some of his supporters pointed the finger at Putin and rallied others to protest, the prosecutor's office in Moscow warned that any demonstrations in the capital over his untimely passing were prohibited.
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