When Leonid Volkov, a longtime affiliate of the late Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny, was brutally attacked with a hammer outdoors his residence in Lithuania in March, it initially appeared yet one more case of the Kremlin searching down its enemies overseas.
The assailant smashed open Volkov’s automobile window and struck him repeatedly with a hammer, breaking his left arm and damaging his left leg. Western officers and opposition figures assumed the assault, which happened a number of weeks after Navalny’s mysterious dying in jail, had been orchestrated by the Kremlin.
Then, final month, Navalny’s staff launched an explosive investigation that solid doubt on that model of occasions.
Within the video, Maria Pevchikh, the pinnacle of Navalny’s investigation division, accused the rich businessman and outspoken Kremlin critic Leonid Nevzlin of hiring the boys to beat up Volkov outdoors his residence, claiming the assault was triggered by a private dispute.
Nevzlin has denied any involvement within the assault. In an announcement on X, he wrote: “I’ve nothing to do with any assaults on folks, in any kind in anyway,” including that “justice will verify the absurdity and full baselessness of the accusations in opposition to me”.
Of their investigation, Navalny’s staff printed screenshots they mentioned confirmed conversations on the messaging app Sign between Nevzlin and an alleged affiliate, Anatoly Blinov, apparently discussing the assault on Volkov. Navalny’s staff handed their file of proof to Polish authorities, the place Blinov was arrested in September.
The allegations have brought on shock and led to infighting amongst members of the exiled Russian opposition, as folks come to phrases with the implications of the revelations, if true.
Pevchikh, of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis, informed the Guardian: “There isn’t a rulebook on what you do whenever you discover out that somebody you recognize stabs you within the again.
“Volkov was attacked three weeks after Alexei was killed. We had barely buried him. Within the lowest level of our lives, somebody pushes you from behind so that you fall much more and undergo much more.”
Nevzlin, a former government and associate of the ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, gave up his Russian citizenship after the beginning of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and is now primarily based in Israel, the place he owns a stake within the Haaretz newspaper.
From Israel, Nevzlin has funded a number of media initiatives which might be vital of the Kremlin and voiced staunch assist for Ukraine in its struggle with Russia. He has beforehand clashed with different opposition teams, together with Navalny’s staff, over disagreements relating to the very best strategy to problem Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.
Nevzlin is thought for his extra radical political beliefs, together with calling for the dissolution of Russia as a rustic and referring to the vast majority of Russia’s inhabitants as “slave cattle”.
The Navalny staff’s investigation relies partly on a cache of personal Sign screenshots they’ve obtained, which, they are saying, reveal exchanges between Nevzlin and a fixer, allegedly Blinov, a Russian lawyer.
Pevchikh said within the video investigation that the screenshots have been offered by a intermediary with ties to Russia’s FSB safety service.
The Guardian was unable to confirm the authenticity of the conversations, which additionally featured covertly shot photographs of Volkov and different members of Navalny’s staff residing in Vilnius. “Time to put off this moron,” reads one of many messages, which the Navalny staff claims Nevzlin wrote.
They additional allege that Nevzlin, within the messages, discusses plans to abduct Volkov in a approach that would go away him “in a wheelchair” earlier than handing him over to the FSB.
The Navalny staff mentioned in an announcement it believed “silly mindless hatred” mixed with “political competitors” might have pushed the assault on Volkov.
The Polish regulation enforcement company mentioned Blinov was beneath investigation on three costs, “together with the cost of orchestrating the assault on Russian opposition activist Leonid V because of his political id and actions”.
Up to now, they haven’t made any touch upon the allegation that Nevzlin was behind the assault. “Many alternative eventualities must be investigated. We additionally know that in such instances, disinformation is commonly being shared,” mentioned Stanisław Żaryn, a nationwide safety adviser to the Polish president, in an interview in Warsaw.
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The arrest of Blinov got here months after Polish authorities detained two males suspected of attacking Volkov, primarily based on a European arrest warrant issued by Lithuania.
Prosecutors mentioned they have been investigating eight folks within the case – six Poles, a Belarusian and the Russian who has been charged.
The Polish prosecutor’s workplace mentioned it was occasions “that happened each in Europe (together with Vilnius) and in South and North America”.
It was not instantly clear what incident authorities have been referring to, although Pevchikh within the investigation additionally claimed Nevzlin was behind an assault on the spouse of a well known Russian economist primarily based in Argentina who has feuded with Nevzlin on social media.
Nevzlin in flip informed Sota, an opposition media outlet he sponsors, that Blinov, the fixer, was searching for to implicate him in ordering the assault on Volkov, and denied involvement in organising any assault. He mentioned he himself filed a report back to the Lithuanian police on 5 August about what he described as a provocation.
The group of Russian dissidents residing overseas has lengthy been disposed to infighting, however the accusations in opposition to Nevzlin have provoked the most important cut up within the opposition motion because the begin of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Navalny’s staff has additionally accused Khodorkovsky, as soon as Russia’s richest man who spent 10 years in jail after falling out with Putin, of being conscious of Nevzlin’s alleged crimes earlier than they turned public.
Khodorkovsky has defended his former enterprise associate Nevzlin, claiming the screenshots have been most likely a part of a scheme orchestrated by Russian safety companies.
“Both it’s true, and Leonid Nevzlin has gone mad, or it’s an FSB provocation and a pretend on which some huge cash has been spent … For completely comprehensible causes, I lean in the direction of the second,” Khodorkovsky mentioned.
Khodorkovsky flew into Warsaw on Monday and met Polish prosecutors to share his personal details about the case. In an interview on Wednesday, Khodorkovsky mentioned he nonetheless believed the proof was most likely faked by Russian authorities.
He additionally prompt essentially the most implausible a part of the allegations was not that Nevzlin might have theoretically ordered the assault, however that he would have been clumsy sufficient to go away a path of proof. “There are issues you’ll be able to consider in, though it will be idiotic and exhausting to see why. However then there are issues that it’s completely unimaginable to consider,” he mentioned.
The scandal dangers additional splitting Russia’s already marginalised opposition, which has been scattered throughout European capitals since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and Putin’s brutal crackdown on dissent. With out Navalny, considered a unifying determine and Putin’s most formidable opponent, the opposition finds itself missing a transparent chief.
The general public quarrels have been eagerly picked up by Russian state media propagandists, who’ve been leveraging the scandal to additional discredit the opposition.
Pevchikh mentioned: “It’s damaging to all the perimeters together with us, and it’s most likely a life-changing occasion by way of the Russian opposition … However in these very troublesome conditions you simply have to talk the reality, nevertheless unhappy and scary it’s.”
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