A trial has begun in the Warsaw District Court for Russian citizen Anatoly Blinov, a lawyer who stands accused of organizing attacks on Leonid Volkov and other Russian opposition figures. Volkov, a longtime aide to the late Alexei Navalny and a senior figure at the Navalny-founded Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), was assaulted outside his Vilnius home on March 12, 2024 by assailants wielding a hammer.
According to Polish investigators, Blinov found people to carry out a range of attacks, provided them with information about the victims, and paid them, acting on instructions from an “identified person.” That person’s name was not read aloud when the charges were presented, but the independent Russian outlet Mediazona reported that investigators believe the figureperson who ordered the attacks was businessman Leonid Nevzlin, who has denied his involvement.
In September 2024, the ACF accused Nevzlin of organizing the attack on Volkov. The Insider examined published correspondence between Blinov and Nevzlin and concluded that it was likely to be authentic.
During the reading of the charges against Blinov on July 22, it emerged that a would-be assailant who was meant to carry out a separate planned attack on Volkov in New York in late 2023 had been offered 50,000 euros. However, the plan was aborted due to police surveillance, according to an exclusive report by Mediazona.
From February to March 2024, according to the indictment, Blinov paid another 15,000 euros for surveillance of Volkov, Maria Pevchikh, and Ivan Zhdanov in Vilnius. The original plan was for the assailant to abduct Volkov and hand him over to Russian law enforcement, but the person abandoned the plan because he feared criminal liability. Blinov then instructed two other defendants to attack the politician, giving them Volkov’s photographs, addresses, and phone numbers.
The attack took place March 12, 2024, when Volkov was in his car near his home in Vilnius. The assailants sprayed pepper spray in his face, struck his left leg 10 to 15 times with a hammer, and hit him once or twice more on the shoulder. Volkov suffered a fracture, an eye burn, wounds and swelling in his arm.
Another count concerns the arson of a replica SHIZO cell installed in Vilnius, modeled on the punishment cell where Navalny had been held while in prison in Russia. Three assailants set fire to the installation on July 7, 2023. Investigators believe Blinov offered 15,000 euros for the attack.
Blinov is also accused of organizing an attack on Alexandra Petrachkova, the wife of economist Maxim Mironov. Blinov allegedly offered the assailants 15,000 zlotys, or about 3,500 euros, and gave them the couple’s address in Argentina, along with their photographs. On Sept. 1, 2023, the attacker struck Petrachkova in the face in an apparent attempt to force her and Mironov to cease their political activity in support of the Russian opposition.
The fifth count involves a fake Polish driver’s license that investigators say Blinov used until September 2024.
A Telegram post by Volkov about the July 22 hearing read:
“The lunch break is ending. Before lunch, this is what happened: The prosecutor read the charges, and Blinov’s questioning began, which is being held behind closed doors.
So I can’t really tell you what happened there — in any case, nothing about the substance of the case. So far Blinov is telling his biography literally from time immemorial. All of this is taking quite a long time because he speaks Russian, the interpreter translates into Polish, then the judge repeats it aloud in Polish so that the clerk can enter not the interpreter’s conversational speech into the record but clearer wording — and the interpreter translates that back to Blinov so he can agree to it.
So Blinov’s questioning will probably continue after lunch and all day tomorrow. After that, things will get more interesting.
Still, the main words have been said: The state prosecutor charged Anatoly Blinov with committing five crimes — organizing the attack on Alexandra Petrachkova in Buenos Aires, organizing the failed attack on me in New York, organizing the attack on me in Vilnius, organizing the arson of the SHIZO installation in Vilnius, and buying a fake driver’s license — all motivated by political hatred and ordered by an identified person.
That identified person is named many times in the indictment — if I didn’t lose count, 56 times — but the name can be made public only once that part of the indictment is read in the open part of the trial.
For now, of course, you can make your own guesses.”
Blinov faces up to five years in prison. He was detained in Poland in mid-September 2024 and has been in custody since. The indictment was submitted to court in March 2026.
