The assault with hammer blows and tear gasoline suffered in Lithuania by Leonid Volkov, an in depth collaborator of the Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny, who died a month in the past in a Siberian jail, represents a brand new instance of the impunity with which Vladimir Putin’s regime acts. in Europe in opposition to anybody whom he or his supporters contemplate a risk to their totalitarian venture. Volkov was ambushed by no less than two folks close to his residence in Vilnius, the capital of the Baltic Republic, a member nation of the European Union. Transferred to a hospital, he was handled for varied accidents, together with a damaged arm. The police and their elite anti-terrorist unit are investigating what occurred, however the Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nauseda, has already clearly identified the primary suspect of being behind the prison motion: Putin.
This is the second incident of this sort identified within the European Union inside roughly a month after the taking pictures homicide final February in Villajoyosa (Alicante) of Maxim Kuzminov, a Russian navy pilot assigned to the Ukrainian entrance who defected final yr. summer time. The head of Russia’s Foreign Espionage Service, Sergei Narishkin, stated after studying of his execution in Spain that, from the second he determined to flee the military, the murdered man was already a “ethical corpse.”
The names of Volkov and Kuzminov be a part of an already lengthy record of Putin opponents who for years have seen their lives lower brief or threatened in European territory. Their profiles are different – from journalists to former navy personnel, businessmen or former colleagues of the president – however all of them had one level in widespread: the Kremlin chief and his circle explicitly thought-about them enemies whose execution also needs to function a warning to the remaining. of exiles and opponents. At the identical time, a message was despatched to European governments that the Moscow regime doesn’t hesitate relating to performing in territories exterior its sovereignty.
This context places the EU and the United Kingdom underneath the duty to particularly defend the lives of Russian refugees on their borders. But additionally within the face of the scenario of responding firmly – one thing introduced without specifying by the Spanish Government following the homicide of Kuzminov – to a method of terror that has already proven ample indicators of audacity and cruelty. Vladimir Putin, who’s working for presidential re-election this Sunday with the opposition decimated and persecuted, is satisfied that in Russia he can act without limits. It could be very unhealthy information if he thought he may do the identical in the remainder of Europe.
