Anatoly Blinov, who is suspected of involvement in an attack on Alexei Navalny’s associate Leonid Volkov in Vilnius, has been arrested in Poland for three months.
The Navalny team’s publication Sirena reported this on Thursday, quoting a spokeswoman for the Polish National Prosecutor’s Office.
According to an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), it was Blinov who was in regular contact with former Yukos vice-president Leonid Nevzlin while organising the attack.
It is not yet known under which articles Blinov was arrested. The case is being investigated by the Department for Combating Organised Crime.
In early September, the team of the deceased Russian opposition leader Navalny claimed that the attack against Volkov in Vilnius last March was organised by another opposition figure, businessman Leonid Nevzlin.
Nevzlin, a Russian-Israeli billionaire and former vice-president of the oil company Yukos, has denied the allegations.
The Polish nationals suspected of attacking Volkov were arrested in Warsaw in April, and a Polish court refused to extradite them to Lithuania because they are suspected of criminal activity in this country as well.
Volkov, who was the chairman of the FBK until 2023, was attacked on the evening of March 12 in a car near his home in Vilnius where he currently resides. The attacker broke the car window, sprayed tear gas and started to beat the Russian oppositionist with a stick. Volkov sustained fractures in his arm and his leg.
Immediately after the attack, Lithuanian politicians and commentators blamed the Russian government and special services for it.
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