Russian dissident Garry Kasparov says US warned him of hazard to his life

An exiled Russian opposition determine residing within the US says he was warned by American and Lithuanian safety companies that his life was in peril.

Former chess world champion Garry Kasparov mentioned he was one in every of two dissidents advised to take precautions, which he had executed.

His feedback come after the US Justice Division unsealed an indictment earlier this month charging 5 individuals who allegedly work for a community linked to the Kremlin with plotting assaults and murders in nations together with the US, specializing in Russian dissidents and defectors.

Kasparov wrote on his Substack that he had not been advised explicitly that he and Free Russia Discussion board co-founder Ivan Tyutrin have been thought of targets, however mentioned each had been warned about their security.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that it had obtained data that Kasparov, together with one other Russian opposition determine, Ilya Ponomarev, had been warned concerning the plot over the summer season by US authorities.

Citing sources near Kasparov, the paper mentioned he had been positioned beneath enhanced safety over the summer season for the primary time since he moved to the US.

Kasparov wrote individually: “I can’t cease and I can’t disguise, even when I believed it was attainable to take action.

“My household and I can’t actually be protected so long as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is in energy in Russia – a circumstance shared by hundreds of thousands.”

Kasparov retired from aggressive chess in 2005 to pursue a profession in politics, founding actions that overtly opposed Putin earlier than fleeing Russia in 2013.

He has not returned since. Russia has classed him as a overseas agent following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and subsequently added him to an inventory of terrorists and extremists in 2024 – each categorisations he rejects.

The opposite reported goal, Ponomarev, was the one Russian MP who voted in opposition to the unlawful annexation of Crimea in 2014 and went into exile in Ukraine.

He declined to substantiate or deny to the Moscow Occasions whether or not he had been tipped off concerning the alleged plot however mentioned the allegations marked “a brand new stage of escalation” by Russia.