As is their motive. Mr volkov has lived outside russia for some years for his own safety and served as mr navalny s chief of staff until the Opposition Leader died suddenly in prison in the Russian Arctic last month. Speaking earlier on the day he was attacked, mr volkov highlighted the threats navalny s team were facing by standing up to vladimir putin. Thats why putin launches all these criminal cases and poisons and killings etc, indeed to push people out of the country where it is very complicated for them to stay relevant. Matthew sussex is Senior Fellow of Central European studies at the Australian National university, he gave his take on the situation. Regardless of who was directly responsible for beating up Leonid Volkov, the message that it sends will be a fairly common one for those who follow russian politics. And that is, if you are an opponent of the putin regime, as Leonid Volkov through his relationship with mr navalny most certainly was, it is possible for you to end u