Alexei Navalny ally quits after urging EU to drop sanctions against oligarchs

Leonid Volkov resigned from ACF International’s board and said he would ‘take a break from my public socio-political activity’. Photograph: Janis Laizans/Reuters

A close ally of Alexei Navalny has resigned his post at the opposition leader’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) after it was revealed that he had signed letters calling for the EU to drop sanctions against several UK-based Russian billionaire oligarchs.

Leonid Volkov confirmed he had signed and sent a 2022 letter to Josep Borrell, the EU foreign affairs chief, in which he called for Brussels to relax sanctions on Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven, and business partners German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev, in a scandal marked by infighting among Russia’s contentious liberal and opposition circles.