Close to Alexeï Navalny attacked | Three suspects “working for Russians” arrested in Poland

(Warsaw) Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Friday the arrest of the two perpetrators and the sponsor “working for the Russians” of the attack committed in March in Lithuania against a relative of the Russian opponent who died in detention Alexeï Navalny.

Attacked on March 12 with a hammer in front of his home in Vilnius, Lithuania where he lives in exile, Leonid Volkov, aged 43 and right-hand man of Alexeï Navalny, had to be briefly hospitalized.

The Lithuanian intelligence services quickly spoke of an attack probably “organized by Russia”, but whose perpetrators could have been recruited locally.

“A Belarusian working for the Russians, who charged two Poles with the attack against Navalny’s collaborator, has been taken into custody. The attackers are also detained,” announced Donald Tusk on the X network, indicating only that the attackers were “linked to radical hooligan circles.”

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda previously announced that the two alleged attackers had been arrested in Poland.

“The suspects were arrested on April 3 in the Republic of Poland, in Warsaw,” Justas Laucius, head of the Vilnius prosecutor’s office, told reporters.

“These are two Polish citizens,” he said, adding that the opponent had been attacked “because of his political activities and his opinions.”

“During the detention operation, five searches were also carried out, which made it possible to seize objects and evidence necessary for the investigation,” said Saulius Briginas, deputy head of the Lithuanian criminal police.

“The detained people are known to the Polish police,” he added.

At a joint press conference, however, police and prosecutors refused to say whether they had evidence to establish that Volkov’s attack was linked to Russian special services.

“If everything goes as we hope, we should see these two detainees in Lithuania in May,” Mr. Laucius said.

There will be “no indulgence”

The Polish police, for their part, limited themselves to indicating during the day, on the social network

Leonid Volkov immediately declared himself “happy” with this announcement.

“I don’t have any further details yet, but I can say that I have seen with what energy and perseverance the Lithuanian police have worked on this case over the past month, and I am very happy that this work has bore fruit,” the Russian opponent wrote on the Telegram network.

“We will know the details soon. I can’t wait to meet them! “, he added.

The attack on Mr. Volkov took place almost a month after the death on February 16 of Alexei Navalny in a penal colony in the Russian Arctic where he was serving a 19-year sentence for “extremism”, and a few days before the election which confirmed Vladimir Putin’s continued power.

The death of Alexeï Navalny is blamed by those close to him on the Russian president, of whom he was the main opponent.

The arrest of these three people comes after Thursday’s announcement of the arrest in Poland of a man suspected of helping Russian intelligence prepare an attack against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

This Polish national, identified as Pawel K., had the task of “collecting and providing information to the military intelligence services of the Russian Federation” and helping them “plan a possible assassination attempt (on) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky », According to a press release from the Polish prosecutor’s office on Thursday.

“No indulgence for the collaborators of the Russian services. We will burn with a hot iron any betrayal and any attempt at destabilization,” promised the head of the Polish government in his message on X.