New reporting has emerged regarding the brutal attack on Alexei Navalny's chief of staff, Leonid Volkov, who was assaulted with a hammer in his home in Lithuania. Volkov was left with a swollen face and a leg covered in blood. An investigative reporter revealed that a Russian-linked extremist group, known as the male battalion, claimed responsibility for the attack. The group released footage suggesting surveillance of Volkov prior to the assault, which was authenticated as real and geolocated to an airport in Vilnius.
The reporter highlighted the increasing trend of Russian intelligence services co-opting organized crime and extremist groups to carry out operations on their behalf. This tactic, previously observed in the murder of Alexei Navalny, involves tracking and photographing targets for weeks in advance. Due to heightened awareness and restrictions on Russian agents traveling abroad, these services are now outsourcing more operations to criminal groups.
