VILNIUS (Reuters) – Lithuanian police said on Wednesday they had launched an investigation into an assault on Leonid Volkov, the long-time aide to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, after he was attacked outside his home in Vilnius on Tuesday.
Volkov was assaulted with tear gas and a hammer, suffering among other things a bruise to his forehead and a leg wound, former Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh has said.
Volkov was back home from the hospital on Wednesday after receiving treatment, he said in a Telegram post.
The investigation was launched into a “minor health impairment”, a Lithuania police spokesperson told Reuters, while adding that no suspects had yet been identified.
Several police units including the elite anti-terrorism unit had been investigating the crime scene near Volkov’s house on the Lithuanian capital’s northern outskirts overnight.
Lithuania’s Foreign Affairs Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis on Tuesday called the incident shocking and said the perpetrators must “answer for their crime”.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, writing by Stine Jacobsen, editing by Terje Soslvik)
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