"We are talking about an incident that happened in Lithuania. We cannot comment in any way on what is happening to people in Lithuania."
This is how Putin's spokesman,
Dmitri Peskov
, responded to a question about the hammer attack suffered two days ago by
Leonid Volkov
, for years the right-hand man of Putin's number one rival,
Alexey Navalny
.
Both Volkov and the Lithuanian secret service blamed Russia for the attack, in which the dissident reported suffering a broken arm and 15 hammer blows to his legs.
Lithuanian President
Gitanas Nauseda
commented on the attack by saying that in Lithuania "no one is afraid" of Putin.
"There is no need to be afraid of Putin, Putin should be respected and listened to," the Kremlin spokesman replied, according to the Interfax agency.
Tajani, Moscow continues to persecute opponents
"In Russia we know what the situation is, so there is little to comment on. Something really serious happened with the death of Navalny and with the attack of even his closest collaborator" Leonid Volkov, who "I had seen in Brussels " with Navalny's wife.
"It is proof that Russia continues to persecute those who oppose the regime and this cannot but deserve our condemnation."
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said this on the sidelines of the conference 'The new slavery - Conference on trafficking' at the Italian Embassy to the Holy See.
Lithuania, 'Volkov hit by Russian secret services'
Alexei Navalny's right-hand man Leonid Volkov was "shot by Russian secret services" to scare the opposition on the eve of the elections.
This was stated by Lithuanian security chief Darius Jauniskis speaking to journalists in Vilnius, as reported by Sky News.
The aim was to "scare the Russian opposition and prevent it from acting during the elections" which start tomorrow in Russia.
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