'Speak the truth' Russia's opposition is rocked by claims over attack on Navalny ally

When Leonid Volkov, a longtime associate of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was brutally attacked with a hammer outside his home in Lithuania in March, it initially seemed yet another case of the Kremlin hunting down its enemies abroad.

- Pjotr Sauer, Shaun Walker

The assailant smashed open Volkov's car window and struck him repeatedly with a hammer, breaking his left arm and damaging his left leg. Western officials and opposition figures assumed the attack, which took place a few weeks after Navalny's mysterious death in prison, had been orchestrated by the Kremlin.

Then, last month, Navalny's team released an explosive investigation that cast doubt on that version of events.

In a video, Maria Pevchikh, the head of investigations for the Anti-Corruption Foundation, the organisation founded by Navalny, accused the wealthy businessman and outspoken Kremlin critic Leonid Nevzlin of hiring the men to beat up Volkov outside his home, claiming the attack was triggered by a personal dispute.

Nevzlin has denied any involvement in the attack. "I have nothing to do with any attacks on people, in any form whatsoever," he wrote on X, adding that "justice will confirm the absurdity and complete baselessness of the accusations against me".

In their investigation, Navalny's team published screenshots they said showed conversations on the messaging app Signal between Nevzlin and an alleged associate, Anatoly Blinov, apparently discussing the attack on Volkov. Navalny's team handed their dossier of evidence to Polish authorities, where Blinov was arrested in September.

The allegations have caused shock and led to infighting among members of the exiled Russian opposition, as people come to terms with the implications of the revelations, if true.

Pevchikh told the Guardian: "There isn't a rulebook on what you do when you find out that someone you know stabs you in the back.

"Volkov was attacked three weeks after Alexei was killed. We had barely buried him. In the lowest point of our lives, someone pushes you from behind so you fall even more and suffer even more."