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Security warning from the U.S. and Lithuania

Russian opposition figure Garry Kasparov said American and Lithuanian security services warned him about a threat while he was living in exile in the United States. The former world chess champion said he took the necessary precautions and that a similar warning was also issued to another dissident.

Kasparov wrote on his own outlet, The Next Move, that neither he nor Free Russia Forum co-founder Ivan Tyutrin was told they were directly targeted, but that both were warned about their security. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo also reported that U.S. authorities informed Kasparov and Russian opposition figure Ilya Ponomarev about the alleged plan over the summer.

According to the paper’s report, which cited sources close to Kasparov, the chess grandmaster was placed under enhanced protection for the first time since moving to the United States.

Kasparov said, “I will not stop and I will not hide.”

What does the U.S. indictment allege?

Kasparov’s statement came after the U.S. Justice Department announced an indictment earlier this month. The indictment said five people acting on behalf of a network allegedly tied to the Kremlin were charged with plotting attacks and murders against Russian dissidents and asylum seekers in countries including the United States.

According to the department, the RIS Network has been operating on behalf of Russian intelligence services since at least 2024. John A. Eisenberg, the U.S. assistant attorney general for national security, alleged that the suspects were acting on orders from the Kremlin as part of a global assassination network and were trying to recruit U.S. citizens and foreigners for killings.

Those charged

  • Yuri Khrameev
  • Kirill Khrameev
  • Oemis Romagoza Durruthy
  • Yaidel Delgado Suarez
  • Angel Eduardo Castro

The U.S. Justice Department said all five remain at large. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when the indictment was announced that he would not comment on the accusations without seeing concrete and credible evidence.

Kasparov’s political background and other dissidents

Kasparov left professional chess and entered politics in 2005. He founded movements openly opposed to Vladimir Putin, left Russia in 2013 and has not returned since. Russia added him to its “foreign agent” list in 2022 after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and to its “terrorist and extremist” list in 2024; Kasparov rejects those labels.

Of the other names mentioned in the report, Ilya Ponomarev is known as the only Russian lawmaker to vote against the 2014 annexation of Crimea. Ponomarev, who later went into exile in Ukraine, told The Moscow Times that he neither confirmed nor denied whether he had received a warning, but said the allegations point to a new level of escalation for Russia.

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