Russian opposition leader, 5 others hurt in Cossack attack

A group of Cossacks attacked Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his associates outside an airport in southern Russia today, wounding Navalny and six others, his spokeswoman said.
Kira Yarmysh said Navalny and about 30 employees of his anti-corruption foundation were holding a team-building weekend in the countryside and had arrived at the Anapa airport this morning when a group of Cossacks attacked them.
Yarmysh said the Cossacks yelled: "Get off our land!" before charging at the group, beating up men and women. She says one of the group was hospitalised.
Videos of the attack posted on social media showed more than a dozen men in Cossack hats and coats charging at the group, which included women and Navalny's small son.

Navalny in a Twitter post today said the attack was coordinated and pre-planned, saying that the group has been under surveillance since it arrived in southern Russia last week. On Friday, Navalny and his associates were stopped by traffic police and detained for several hours for what police later said was a routine check.
Attacks on political activists have become almost routine in Russia lately, with the activists facing physical threats and verbal abuse whenever they travel outside Moscow.

Cossacks, a paramilitary group dating back to tsarist times, have gone through a revival in recent years, and in southern Russia the Cossacks had been granted the right to patrol the streets. In arguably the most-publicised incident of Cossack violence, several men attacked members of the Pussy Riot punk collective with whips during an impromptu performance in the Black Sea resort of Sochi during the 2014 Winter Games there.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said he could not comment on the incident because he lacked detail of what happened there.
In February, opposition leader Mikhail Kasyanov said he was threatened by a group of men who then attacked him with a cake while he was dining at a restaurant in Moscow. Navalny has been repeatedly harassed by right-wing activists who have thrown eggs, green antiseptic and cakes at him.
The Kremlin has publicly condemned the attack but there have been no reports of a prosecution of any of the attackers, most of whom did not even hide their faces.