Kasparov Says US and Lithuanian Agencies Warned Him of Threat to His Life
Exiled Russian opposition figure Garry Kasparov says US and Lithuanian security services warned him his life was in danger, following a US indictment of a Kremlin-linked network accused of plotting attacks on Russian dissidents.
Garry Kasparov, the former chess world champion and exiled Russian opposition figure now living in the United States, has said American and Lithuanian security services warned him that his life was in danger. Writing in his publication The Next Move, Kasparov said he was not told explicitly that he was a target, but confirmed that he and fellow Free Russia Forum co-founder Ivan Tyutrin had both been warned about their safety.
Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that Kasparov, along with another Russian opposition figure, Ilya Ponomarev, had been warned by US authorities over the summer about an alleged plot. Sources close to Kasparov told the paper he had been placed under enhanced protection for the first time since relocating to the US.
Kasparov said he would not stop his activities or go into hiding, adding that neither he nor his family would be truly safe as long as Russian President Vladimir Putin remains in power — a situation he said millions of others share.
Background
Kasparov retired from competitive chess in 2005 to enter politics, founding movements opposed to Putin before fleeing Russia in 2013; he has not returned since. Russia designated him a foreign agent after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and later added him to a list of terrorists and extremists in 2024, labels he rejects.
Ponomarev, the only Russian lawmaker to vote against the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and who later went into exile in Ukraine, declined to confirm or deny being warned but described the allegations as a new level of escalation by Russia.
The warnings follow a US Justice Department indictment unsealed earlier this month against five alleged members of a Kremlin-linked network accused of conspiring to carry out attacks and killings of Russian dissidents and defectors in several countries, including the US, since at least 2024. All five suspects remain at large. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he would not comment until seeing credible evidence.
