Close ally of late opposition leader Navalny is attacked in Lithuania’s capital, team says

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Associates of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny reported on Tuesday night that the politician’s close ally and top strategist was attacked near his home in Lithuania. Navalny’s spokesman Kira Yarmysh said the assailant smashed a window of Leonid Volkov’s car, sprayed tear gas into his eyes and started hitting him with a hammer. Police and an ambulance was on the way, Yarmysh said. The attack took place nearly a month after Navalny’s unexplained death in a remote Arctic penal colony and just days after Russia’s presidential election that Vladimir Putin is almost certain to win after eliminating all the opposition. Volkov left Russia under pressure from the authorities several years ago.