Exiled ally of Alexei Navalny vows to ‘never give up’ fighting Putin so the late Russian opposition leader’s sacrifice is ‘not in vain’

An exiled ally of Alexei Navalny has vowed to ‘never give up’ the fight against Vladimir Putin to ensure the late Russian opposition leader’s sacrifice is ‘not in vain’.

Leonid Volkov, speaking after a horrific hammer and tear gas attack outside his home in Lithuania in March, described his friend’s death as an “open wound in our hearts.”

Navalny died in February at the age of 47 in a prison camp in the Arctic.

Volkov insisted there was “not one magic trick” to overthrow Putin, but called on Ukraine’s Western allies to send more weapons to the front line and not consider negotiating with the Russian leader.

He told the BBC: ‘If there are 50 things we can do, we should do all 50. If you do 49, that’s not enough because that’s the biggest threat to the world we’ve seen in 80 years.”

Navalny pictured at a rally in St. Petersburg in 2012. He died at the age of 47 in an Arctic prison camp in February

Vladimir Putin yesterday at a press conference in China. Volkov insisted there was “not one magic trick” to overthrow Putin, but called on Ukraine’s Western allies to send more weapons to the front line and not consider negotiating with the Russian leader.

Navalny’s aide accepted that there was “no replacement” for the late politician, but that his wife Yulia Navalnaya was considered by “everyone” as the new “charismatic” leader of the opposition movement.

Volkov added that Navalnaya did not want to be seen as the heir to her husband, who many allies, branded extremists by authorities, believe was killed by Putin.

About the Russian leader, Volkov pointed out that he knew no borders and killed people across the continent, on the front lines and even in Russia.

He added that Putin’s recent show of force was a front and urged Western leaders not to be misled by it.

The attack on Volkov’s home in Vilnius, Lithuania, took place on March 12 and saw an assailant smash a window of his car, spray tear gas in his eyes and begin beating him with a hammer, according to Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh.

Photos of Volkov’s injuries revealed that he had a black eye, a red mark on his forehead and bleeding on his leg, which had soaked through his jeans.

The opposition figure claimed that the message behind the attack on his property was that his enemies knew where he was and that they could harm him if they wanted to.

Volkov was a close ally of Navalny and worked until 2023 as the late leader’s ex-chief of staff and as chairman of his Anti-Corruption Foundation.

Yulia Navalnaya (pictured, in Berlin on election day in March), widow of Alexey Navalny, believes the Kremlin ordered her husband’s murder

Photos of Volkov’s injuries after his home was attacked in March revealed he had a black eye and a red mark on his forehead

Volkov was a close ally of Alexei Navalny (pictured during his 2017 trial in Moscow City’s Tverskoy Court) and worked as the late leader’s ex-chief of staff and as chairman of his Anti-Corruption Foundation until 2023.

Navalny had been in prison since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow to face certain arrest after recovering in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.

His Foundation for the Fight against Corruption and its regional offices were designated as “extremist organizations” by the Russian government that same year.

Volkov used to be in charge of the regional offices. He left Russia under pressure from the authorities.

Navalny’s death, reported by prison officials on February 16, sent shockwaves around the world.

Russian authorities say Navalny died of natural causes in Arctic prison, but his wife Yulia Navalnaya has accused Putin of having him killed – an accusation the Kremlin vehemently rejects.

Recently, U.S. intelligence agencies backed Putin’s claims and determined that the Russian president likely did not order the opposition politician’s assassination, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.

However, the Journal said Washington had not absolved the Russian leader of overall responsibility for Navalny’s death, as the opposition politician had been targeted by Russian authorities for years, imprisoned on charges the West said were politically motivated and was poisoned with a nervous breakdown in 2020. intermediary.

The Kremlin denies state involvement in the 2020 poisoning.

The attacker smashed a window of Volkov’s car (pictured), sprayed tear gas into his eyes and started hitting him with a hammer, Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said.

Alexei Navalny seen on a screen via video link from the IK-3 penal colony above the Arctic Circle during a hearing at the High Court of Justice in Moscow in January on restrictions imposed on the books and literature he has access to in prison 11, 2024

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny is detained by Russian police officers during a march to protest the alleged impunity of law enforcement agencies in central Moscow on June 12, 2019

The mothers of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his widow Yulia Navalnaya, Lyudmila and Alla, stand in front of Navalny’s grave on March 2, 2024, the day after his burial at Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow

Reuters could not independently verify the Journal report, which cited sources saying the finding was “widely accepted within the intelligence community and shared by several agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. intelligence unit.’

The US assessment was based on a range of information, including some classified intelligence, and an analysis of public facts, including the timing of Navalny’s death and how it overshadowed Putin’s re-election in March, the newspaper cited some sources.

It quoted Volkov as calling the US findings naive and ridiculous.