After the attack on the Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov in Lithuania The alleged mastermind and two other suspects were arrested in Poland. A “Belarusian working for the Russians” commissioned two Poles to attack Volkov, wrote Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Platform X. All three men were taken into custody.
The two suspects are Polish citizens who were already known to the police there. According to Lithuanian deputy police chief Saulius Briginas, they traveled to Volkov before the attack Vilnius and then returned to Warsaw. He said they were arrested on April 3 in an operation involving Lithuanian police.
However, the police and the public prosecutor’s office did not comment on whether there was evidence of Russian secret service involvement.
Volkov was a close confidant of the dead opposition politician Alexei Navalny. He left Russia for political reasons and has been living in exile in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius ever since. On March 12, Volkov was attacked with a meat hammer by unknown assailants in front of his house. He later reported that he hit back with the door of his car until the perpetrator finally ran away. The attack ended with injuries to his head, a bloody wound to his leg and a broken arm.
Nausėda thanked Poland for “excellent work”
The Lithuanian secret service blamed Russian special forces for this, but the Russian government declined to comment. Volkov himself said, of Russia President Vladimir Putin was behind the crime.
Lithuania expects the suspects to be extradited in May, Lithuanian chief prosecutor Justas Laucius told reporters. If convicted, they face up to three years in prison. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda thanked Poland for his “excellent work”.
In Poland, Joanna Adamowicz, a Warsaw court spokeswoman, said the two men would be held until May 13 on suspicion of organizing an attack on the territory of Lithuania “and damaging the health of the Russian citizen LW.” They were “active in an organized group” and “executed the orders of the special services of a foreign country.”
Volkov: “We will find out the details soon”
The Russian government critic welcomed the authorities’ success in the investigation – without knowing any further details himself. “I have seen how energetically and persistently the Lithuanian police have worked on this case over the past month and I am very happy that this work was successful,” he wrote on Platform X. “We’ll find out the details soon, I can’t wait.”
Russian critics and opposition figures living abroad repeatedly report possible attacks. Last summer, the former author of the Novaya Gazeta, Jelena Kostyutschenko, publicly disclosed a suspected poison attack against herself, which is said to have occurred in Munich in October 2022. The Russian Natalia Arno, who lives in the USA and heads the Free Russia Foundation, also complained of acute symptoms of poisoning. The biggest case to date is the unsolved murder of a Russian defector in Spain. The pilot, Maxim Kuzminov, was living in Spain under a Ukrainian alias and was shot dead by unknown assailants in February.
Alexei Navalny was one of Vladimir Putin’s best-known critics. In Russia he was sentenced to a long prison sentence. He died in a prison camp in Siberia on February 16th. The circumstances of his death are still unclear to this day. According to authorities, he collapsed while walking around the icy prison yard. Attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful. His widow Julija Navalnaya believes that her husband was murdered in the camp.
After the attack on the Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov in Lithuania The alleged mastermind and two other suspects were arrested in Poland. A “Belarusian working for the Russians” commissioned two Poles to attack Volkov, wrote Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Platform X. All three men were taken into custody.
The two suspects are Polish citizens who were already known to the police there. According to Lithuanian deputy police chief Saulius Briginas, they traveled to Volkov before the attack Vilnius and then returned to Warsaw. He said they were arrested on April 3 in an operation involving Lithuanian police.