Kasparov says US intelligence warned his life was in danger

Kremlin critic and chess legend Garry Kasparov said Thursday that US and Lithuanian security services had told him and his ally that their lives were in danger and urged them to take security precautions.

"News that I, along with my longtime associate and co-founder of the Free Russia Forum, Ivan Tyutrin, are on a list of assassination targets did not come as a surprise to me, but it is nevertheless a shock," Kasparov said on social media.

"Lithuanian and US security services informed us that our lives were in danger and that we should take precautionary measures. I did exactly that, and I will continue to do so in the future."

Kasparov, 63, published the statement after the US Department of Justice in mid-September announced charges against five alleged agents for Russian intelligence accused of conspiring to carry out attacks and murders around the world, including in the United States.

The group attempted to have a "prominent Russian dissident" living in the United States murdered this summer, the department said. The US authorities did not name the Kremlin critic, only identifying him as "Victim-1."

One of the defendants is an officer of Russia's FSB security service.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo said Wednesday, citing sources close to Kasparov, that Russian agents had plotted to murder him as well as former Russian lawmaker-turned-critic Ilya Ponomaryov.

"Neither Ivan nor I were explicitly told that we were the individuals whose names are concealed in the indictment against those accused of carrying out the assassination plot," Kasparov said.

In 2016, Kasparov and Tyutrin founded the Free Russia Forum, which advocates support for the Ukrainian military and organises anti-war conferences.

In 2023, Russia designated the forum an "undesirable organisation" and put it on a list of "terrorist" organisations in 2025.

The alleged plot revealed by the US authorities appears to mark an escalation both in the targeting of dissidents and the reach of Russian operations on Western soil. While Russian security services have repeatedly targeted Kremlin opponents across Europe, the United States has remained off-limits for decades.

The US Department of Justice also said the Russian agents were trying to have murdered a target in Lithuania, identified only as "Victim-2".

One of the Russian agents offered a US citizen $25,000 to kill "Victim-2", suggesting the US citizen could murder him by "throwing a bottle of gasoline" at him or "sticking a knife" in him.

Speaking to AFP, Tyutrin, who lives in exile in Vilnius, said he did not know if he was "Victim-2".

But he said Lithuania had warned him after the US announcement was made that "I needed to leave my home urgently and get rid of my car."