Lithuania says Putin was behind hammer attack on Navalny aide

Lithuania has blamed Moscow for the bloody hammer attack on a longtime aide to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny outside his home in Vilnius.

- Pjotr Sauer

Leonid Volkov, 43, was in hospital briefly after he was attacked with a hammer by an unknown assailant on Tuesday night in the Lithuanian capital.

"The man attacked me in the yard, hit me on the leg about 15 times. The leg somehow is OK. It hurts to walk ... However, I broke my arm," Volkov said in the Telegram post describing the attack. "They literally wanted to make a schnitzel out of me."

Lithuania's president, Gitanas Nausėda, said the attack on Navalny's aide was clearly planned and tied in with other provocations against Lithuania. "I can only say one thing to [Vladimir] Putin: nobody is afraid of you here."

No suspects have been identified but the Lithuanian state security department said the attack had probably been organised and executed by Moscow to stop the Russian opposition from influencing this weekend's presidential election, while Lithuania's police commissioner, Renatas Požėla, said huge resources were going into investigating the assault.

He said: "This is a one-time event which we will successfully solve ...Our people should not be afraid because of this."