Polish prosecutors charge Russian as mastermind of attack on opposition leader Leonid Volkov

September 20 () –

Poland’s prosecutor’s office on Friday charged a Russian citizen with three crimes for allegedly masterminding the attack in March against Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov, a collaborator of the late activist Alexei Navalni.

The suspect, identified as Anatoli B, was arrested on 13 September. Prosecutor’s spokesman Przemislaw Nowak said in a statement that the charges include “directly hitting an opponent” because of “his political affiliation”.

A district court in the capital Warsaw has remanded him in custody for three months. Eight suspects are currently being held in the investigation, including six Poles, one Belarusian and the Russian citizen.

This comes after security forces arrested two Poles, Igor C. and Maksimilian K. D, in April in connection with the case, which investigates attacks against Russian opponents linked to Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.

Volkov was attacked in March outside his home in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, where he lives in exile. The attacker smashed one of the windows of his car, sprayed him in the eyes with tear gas and hit him with a hammer, police said.

The Russian activist, who was the campaign manager for the late Navalny in the 2018 presidential election, suffered injuries to his arm, leg and face. After recovering, he blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the attack.

The incident occurred nearly a month after Navalny’s death in a Russian Arctic prison where he was serving sentences for corruption and extremism. The opposition leader’s allies directly accused Putin of his death, as have several Western countries.