Garry Kasparov says US, Lithuania warned lives at risk

Garry Kasparov said Thursday that US and Lithuanian security services had warned him and Free Russia Forum co-founder Ivan Tyutrin that their lives were in danger and urged them to take precautions.

Kasparov, a Kremlin critic and former chess champion who lives in exile in the United States, said on social media that he and Tyutrin were on a list of assassination targets. He said the warning was a shock but “did not come as a surprise”.

Tyutrin, who is based in Vilnius, told AFP that Lithuanian authorities warned him two weeks ago to leave his home urgently and get rid of his car.

The warnings came after the US Department of Justice announced charges in mid-September against five alleged Russian intelligence agents accused of conspiring to carry out attacks and murders around the world, including in the United States. The department said the group tried this summer to have a “prominent Russian dissident” living in the United States killed for an estimated $40,000, but did not name the person.

Kasparov said neither he nor Tyutrin had been explicitly told that they were the unnamed people in the indictment. Tyutrin said he did not know whether he was the target identified in the US case as “Victim-2”.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported Wednesday, citing sources close to Kasparov, that Russian agents had plotted to kill him and former Russian lawmaker-turned-critic Ilya Ponomaryov.

Tyutrin said he believed Russian security services were seeking to punish him for his support for Ukraine. That claim was not independently established in the supplied material.