Garry Kasparov says US and Lithuanian security services warned him of assassination threat
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov says US and Lithuanian security services warned him his life was in danger following a suspected Russian plot against Kremlin opponents abroad.
Russian opposition figure and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov has said security services in the United States and Lithuania warned him that his life was in danger, following a suspected plot against Kremlin opponents living outside Russia.
US authorities said last month that they had charged five people over alleged plots involving Russian intelligence to assassinate two opposition figures — one in the US and one in Lithuania — after paying recruits to carry out surveillance on them.
Unconfirmed media reports have named the possible targets as Kasparov, who lives in New York; Ilya Ponomaryov, a dissident based in Ukraine who travels regularly to the US; and Ivan Tyutrin, an opposition activist based in Lithuania.
Kasparov, 63, wrote in a Substack post that he and Tyutrin were not told they were explicit targets: “We were, however, warned by security services in Lithuania and the US that our lives were in danger and that we should take precautions.”
“But I will not stop and I will not hide… I will continue to do everything I can to rally the free world against Putin’s murderous dictatorship,” he added. Russia has placed Kasparov on its lists of “foreign agents” and “terrorists and extremists”.
The Kremlin said last month it saw no reason to comment on the US allegations in the absence of what it called credible evidence and facts. Russia has previously denied conducting such plots on foreign soil, including in the US.
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