Suspect in attack on Navalny associate Leonid Volkov detained in Poland

A man suspected of attacking a close associate of late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny with a hammer in Lithuania in March has been detained in Poland, independent news agency Sirena reported on Thursday.

The suspected assailant of Leonid Volkov, who was named by the Polish Prosecutor’s Office as Anatoly Blinov, was remanded in custody for three months, though the charges against him have not yet been made public.

Volkov was attacked on the evening of 12 March near his home in the outskirts of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, leaving him with a broken arm and leg injuries. Three men were arrested on suspicion of carrying out the attack in Poland the following month.

An investigation into the attack by Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) published last week named the former co-owner of Russian oil company Yukos, Leonid Nevzlin, as the person who ordered the attack on Volkov, and revealed that Blinov has been in regular contact with Nevzlin in the run up to the attack.

The FBK investigation found that Blinov acted on Nevzlin’s instructions to organise physical attacks on a number of Russian opposition figures, including FBK director Ivan Zhdanov, and Alexandra Petrachkova, the wife of economist and opposition activist Maxim Mironov.

“Anatoly Blinov has been detained by Poland’s organised crime department. … I hope that a warrant will now be issued for Nevzlin’s arrest,” Zhdanov wrote on Telegram.

“Leonid Nevzlin should be arrested and brought before an independent court for organising the kidnapping and attempted murder of Leonid Volkov and for organising the attacks on Petrachkova and Zhdanov,” Maria Pevchikh, head of investigations at the FBK, wrote in the investigation.

Nevzlin and his associates have denied any involvement in the attacks.