US Warned Kasparov of Kremlin Assassination Network Plot — SkimNews
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- Garry Kasparov said he was warned by American and Lithuanian security services that his life was in danger, taking precautions as one of two dissidents alerted.
- Kasparov wrote in The Next Move that he and fellow Free Russia Forum co-founder Ivan Tyutrin had both been warned about their safety over the summer, though neither was told explicitly they were targets.
- The US Justice Department unsealed an indictment this month charging five people — Yuri Khrameev, Kirill Khrameev, Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, Yaidel Delgado Suarez, and Angel Eduardo Castro — alleged members of a Kremlin-linked "global assassination network" targeting dissidents and defectors; all five remain at large.
- Ilya Ponomarev, the only Russian MP who voted against the 2014 annexation of Crimea, declined to confirm or deny being tipped off but called the allegations "a new level of escalation" by Russia.
- Russia designated Kasparov a foreign agent following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and added him to a list of terrorists and extremists in 2024 — categorisations he rejects; Kasparov fled Russia in 2013 and has not returned.
Why it matters: The unsealed indictment and the specific warning from US and Lithuanian intelligence confirm that Kremlin-linked assassination plotting has reached named dissidents on Western soil. With all five defendants still at large and the alleged network described as operating globally since at least 2024, the threat to exiled Russian opposition figures is active rather than historical, and Western governments are now openly providing personal protection rather than denying the risk.
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