Message #45663

[Jitendra Hydonus]

Navalny’s longtime ally and former chief of staff, Leonid Volkov, was attacked with a hammer near his home in Lithuania on March 12, only three days before the start of voting in Russia. (Authorities in Lithuania blamed the attack on Moscow, but no arrests have yet been made.) While receiving treatment for his injuries, Volkov, who fled Russia several years ago to escape arrest, called the assault a typical “gangster’s greeting” from Putin. “We’ll keep working,” he said. “And we will not surrender.”

This weekend, no matter how predictable the results of the ballot may be, they will present Navalny’s allies with their best chance to put his political strategy into action. The ultimate goal he described in his prison letters is for Russia to hold free elections, and enough of them for democracy to take hold over time.