- Three arrested in connection to Navalny aide’s assault
- Poland PM: Attack ordered by Belarusian working for Russians
- Polish nationals accused; Lithuanian and Polish collaboration in investigation
In connection with the assault on a senior aide to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, three individuals have been apprehended.
In March, according to Leonid Volkov, his arm was fractured outside his residence in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.
Prime Minister of Poland statement: “A Belarusian working for the Russians” was purportedly in charge of ordering the attack.
It is alleged that two Polish citizens with ties to football fanatical organizations carried it out.
Lithuanian intelligence initially hypothesized that “Russian organised” forces were responsible for the attack.
Friday at a press conference, President Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania affirmed the apprehensions and expressed gratitude to Polish authorities.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he conveyed his appreciation to President Andrzej Duda and cautioned the perpetrators of the crime to “not attempt to repeat it.”
Two Polish nationals were being held in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, following their arrest on April 3, according to the prosecutor’s office of Lithuania.
They further stated that Mr. Volkov’s “beliefs and political activities” incited the attack.
Due to safety concerns, the 43-year-old former Navalny’s chief of staff has resided outside of Russia for several years.
The men in custody, according to Polish police, were sought on a European Arrest Warrant and were being held at the district prosecutor’s office in Warsaw-Praga.
In the interim, a Polish national was apprehended and accused separately, according to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, for conspiring with Russian intelligence services to aid in the attempted assassination of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Mr. Tusk stated that collaborators of the Russian security services would not be granted any leniency. Any act of betrayal or attempt at destabilization will be consumed by fire.
Mr. Volkov, responding to the arrests, stated, “Although I do not yet have any additional information, I can say that I have witnessed the Lithuanian police’s tireless and determined effort over the past month towards solving this case, and I am ecstatic that it has paid off.”
The activist stated in March that the assault was “an obvious, typical gangster greeting from bandit St. Petersburg to Putin,” but provided no further information.
Everything transpired in secrecy… there is no doubt that this is a transparent political assault, he further stated.
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Officials from the Kremlin declined to comment on the arrests at a Friday news conference.
Mr. Volkov was only momentarily admitted to the hospital on March 12 following the assault, which occurred as he was driving to his residence in Vilnius.
An additional member of the Navalny team at the time uploaded images to social media that depicted Mr. Volkov with head contusions and a bloodied limb. He reported receiving multiple blows to the head with a bludgeon and pepper spray.
In February, Alexei Navalny, the late head of the Russian opposition, passed away unexpectedly in a prison in the Russian Arctic.
His widow Yulia Navalnaya stated this week that she had hired a bodyguard in response to Mr. Volkov’s assault.
“They attacked Leonid today; they will break into their home tomorrow,” she told Time magazine, adding that the wife of Mr. Volkov was present “with their young children” at the time.
Ms. Navalnaya stated that neither she nor her late spouse had security in the past; however, “it is possible to err if you are too cavalier.”
