Kasparov Receives US Life‑Safety Warning After Kremlin‑Linked Network Unsealed

Fri Oct 02 2026 05:44:25 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Former chess champion Garry Kasparov says US and Lithuanian intelligence warned him of danger as the US indicts a Russian assassination network.

Russian exile and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov claims he was warned by U.S. and Lithuanian security services that he is a target after the Justice Department opened an indictment against a Kremlin‑linked network. The indictment names five alleged operatives planning murders of dissidents abroad. Kasparov’s warnings come alongside reports that allies such as Ilya Ponomarev were similarly alerted. The case underscores a growing US effort to counter Russian covert attacks on exiles.

Garry Kasparov, a former world chess champion turned exiled Russian opposition leader, says he was warned by U.S. and Lithuanian security services that his life is under threat.

The warning came after the U.S. Justice Department unsealed an indictment earlier this month that named five men alleged to work for a Kremlin‑linked network planning murders and attacks against Russian dissidents worldwide.

Kasparov wrote in his publication The Next Move that he was not told explicitly that he or fellow Free Russia Forum co‑founder Ivan Tyutrin were considered targets, but that both had received safety warnings. He confirmed that he had activated enhanced protection over the summer, the first time since he fled Russia in 2013.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that Kasparov and fellow exile Ilya Ponomarev had been tipped off about the plot. Ponomarev, a former MP who opposed Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, said the allegations represented a new level of escalation by Moscow.

The indictment alleges the so‑called RIS Network was orchestrating attacks on dissidents across the globe, with five identified operatives named as Yuri Khrameev, Kirill Khrameev, Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, Yaidel Delgado Suarez and Angel Eduardo Castro. All remain at large.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the charges until seeing credible evidence. The case highlights the tense, and increasingly dangerous, environment for Russian exiles in the West.