Italy condemned on Thursday the attack on Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov, a close ally of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, saying it demonstrated Russia’s persecution of Moscow’s opponents.
“Something really serious happened with the death of Navalny and also the attack on his closest collaborator,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, whose nation holds this year’s rotating G7 presidency, told reporters.
“It is proof that Russia continues to persecute those who oppose the regime and this cannot but deserve our condemnation.”
Lithuania has accused Russia’s special services of participation in Tuesday’s attack on Volkov, who was briefly brought to hospital after being repeatedly struck with a hammer outside his home in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius.
The attack occurred over a month after Navalny died in an Arctic prison, which Volkov blamed on Putin, and just days before elections that appear likely extend the Kremlin chief’s tenure.