March 18, 2024

"Bandit Greetings" to the Oppositionist


"Bandit Greetings" to the Oppositionist
Leonid Volkov on a rally-concert in support of Alexey Navalny. putnik, Wikimedia Commons

On March 12 an unidentified assailant attacked Leonid Volkov, a former chairman of the Fond Borby S Korruptsiyey (Foundation for Combating Corruption) and a close ally of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The incident occurred on the outskirts of Vilnius, Lithuania, near Volkov's residence.

Volkov reported that the assailant struck him with the hammer many times. The politician managed to fend off the attacker and fractured his arm in the process.

Following the assault, Volkov was admitted to the hospital, where he recounted the incident and urged Russians to participate in the Polden Protiv Putina (Noon against Putin) political action. The action calls for opposition-minded individuals to assemble at polling stations nationwide at noon on March 17, aiming to demonstrate widespread dissent within Russia.

The attack on Volkov garnered condemnation from various Western officials. U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania Kara McDonald was shocked at the news; Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis also labeled the assault "shocking."

The Lithuanian police's anti-terrorism unit is currently investigating the incident. Deputy Commissioner General of Police Saulius Tamulevičius said on radio station LRT that multiple theories about the attack are under consideration.

Volkov called the assault "a typical, gangster greeting from Putin." Just hours before the attack, in an interview with independent media outlet Meduza, Volkov discussed the threats faced by Navalny's associates, warning of the potential for lethal reprisals.

Volkov's ordeal is not an isolated incident; Russian opposition figures, activists, and journalists remain vulnerable even beyond the country's borders. Last year, Russian operatives abducted an activist in Georgia, and are believed to have been behind the poisoning of independent journalist Elena Kostyuchenko in Germany in 2022.

You Might Also Like

Words from Behind the Glass Box
  • March 04, 2024

Words from Behind the Glass Box

A playwright and a theater director were arrested for a play criticizing ISIS. After months in jail, they spoke from their defendants' glass box.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955