1 Oct (Reuters) – Garry Kasparov, a Russian opposition figure and former world chess champion, said that the security services of the United States and Lithuania alerted him that his life was in danger, after an alleged conspiracy against Kremlin opponents living outside Russia.
U.S. authorities said last month that they had indicted five people for alleged conspiracies involving Russian intelligence services to assassinate two opposition figures — one in the United States and another in Lithuania — after paying recruits to conduct surveillance on both.
Unconfirmed media reports pointed to Kasparov, who lives in New York; Ilya Ponomaryov, a dissident who resides in Ukraine but travels regularly to the United States; and Ivan Tyutrin, an opposition activist who lives in Lithuania, as possible targets.
Kasparov, 63, wrote in a Substack post that he and Tyutrin were not informed that they were explicit targets.
“We were, however, alerted by the security services of Lithuania and the United States that our lives were in danger and that we should take precautions,” he wrote.
“But I will not stop and I will not hide… I will continue to do everything I can to mobilize the free world against Putin’s murderous dictatorship,” Kasparov added, who was included by Russia on its lists of “foreign agents” and “terrorists and extremists.”
The Kremlin said last month that it saw no reason to comment on the U.S. allegations in the absence of what it called reliable evidence and facts. Russia had previously denied having carried out such conspiracies on foreign soil, including in the United States.
