“Beautiful Russia of the future”
Kremlin critic Volkov: Will defeat Putin
May 18, 2024, 9:25 p.m
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In April, Leonid Volkov was brutally attacked with a meat hammer and seriously injured. The attack is said to have been organized by Russia. Now the former Navalny confidant wants to continue the work of Putin’s most famous critic. He declares that he wants to take action against the Russian president.
Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov, who was attacked in exile in Lithuania a few weeks ago, wants to continue fighting against President Vladimir Putin. According to the British broadcaster BBC, he said this in an interview that will be broadcast on Sunday. Volkov was a close confidant of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who died in a prison camp in February. Navalny’s death is an open wound in the hearts of his friends and colleagues, Volkov said.
Navalny told them that they should never give up. Continuing their work was the only practical way to preserve his legacy and ensure that his sacrifice was not in vain. That means defeating Putin and building the beautiful Russia of the future that Navalny has dreamed of for so many years, said Volkov. Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, is a strong personality and charismatic leader, Volkov said. She never wanted to be in this public role. The task now is to support them.
The team and family of Kremlin opponent Navalny, who died in custody, accuse Kremlin leader Putin of killing the opposition figure. However, according to a US media report, there is no evidence of a direct order. However, Volkov dismissed the US secret services’ assessment in the Wall Street Journal as naive. “The idea that Putin was uninformed and did not approve of Navalny’s killing is ridiculous.”
According to authorities, Navalny died on February 16 in the penal camp with the unofficial name “Arctic Wolf” in the Siberian Arctic region of Yamal. The circumstances of his death are not clear. The politician, who was weakened by a poison attack in 2020 and repeated solitary confinement in the camp, is said to have collapsed during a tour of the icy prison yard and died despite attempts to resuscitate him. According to Navalny’s team, the death certificate mentions “natural” causes. Navalny’s relatives, however, speak of murder.
Attacked multiple times with a meat hammer
Volkov lives in exile in Lithuania and was attacked and seriously injured with a hammer in front of his home in Vilnius in the evening of March. The 43-year-old had to be briefly treated in hospital. “They literally wanted to make a schnitzel out of me,” Volkov said of the attack. Lithuania’s secret service said it was probably an attack organized by Russia.
Two suspects were subsequently arrested in Poland. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that a “Belarusian working for the Russians” had commissioned two Poles to attack Volkov. The two Polish suspects were arrested in Warsaw on April 3, said the head of the public prosecutor’s office in Vilnius, Justas Laucius.
Volkov was attacked “because of his political activities and views.” However, the police and the public prosecutor’s office did not comment on whether there was evidence that Russian secret services were involved. The exact background remains unclear.