Kasparov Says U.S. and Lithuania Warned Him as U.S. Charges Alleged Russian Plot
Garry Kasparov says American and Lithuanian security services warned him that his life was in danger.
The 63-year-old former world chess champion shared the warning in a Substack post, according to reporting published on Oct. 1, 2026 Reuters. He said he was one of two dissidents told to take safety steps, which he has done BBC.
Kasparov wrote that officials did not state directly that he and Ivan Tyutrin were targets. Tyutrin is his co-founder of the Free Russia Forum. Both men were told to protect themselves.
Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that U.S. authorities warned Kasparov and Russian opposition figure Ilya Ponomarev about the plot over the summer. Citing sources close to Kasparov, the paper also reported that Kasparov received enhanced protection this summer for the first time since moving to the United States.
The U.S. Justice Department has now unsealed an indictment, a formal paper listing criminal charges, against five people accused of working for the Kremlin. The department says they plotted attacks and killings in several countries, including the U.S., aimed at Russian dissidents and defectors. It describes the group as the RIS Network, made up of people working for Russian intelligence services and active since at least 2024.
The five accused organizers are Yuri Khrameev, Kirill Khrameev, Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, Yaidel Delgado Suarez and Angel Eduardo Castro. The Justice Department says all five remain at large.
Kasparov left competitive chess in 2005 for politics, started movements opposing Vladimir Putin, left Russia in 2013 and has not returned. Russia listed him as a foreign agent, a legal label for people it claims act for foreign interests, after the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and added him to a list of terrorists and extremists in 2024. Ponomarev was the only Russian member of parliament to vote against the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and later left for Ukraine. He declined to confirm or deny to the Moscow Times whether he had been warned about the alleged plot.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he would not comment on the U.S. charges until he had seen credible evidence or tangible facts. Kasparov said he will not stop and will not hide. He added that he and his family will not truly be safe as long as Vladimir Putin is in power.
The broader context here is the pairing of two different tools. A warning is protective and often precautionary, like an early alert. An indictment names suspects, claims state direction, and asserts U.S. legal authority. Together, they move this story from a personal safety scare to a test of how U.S. courts handle claims of attacks ordered from abroad against political exiles living in the country.
Looking at what comes next for officials and exile groups, two questions stand out. Operationally, none of the five accused is in custody, which leaves investigators with names but no trial in the near term. Diplomatically, the role of both U.S. and Lithuanian services and the summer timeline point to continued coordination among allies. For Russians living in exile, the message is mixed: protection is available, but the alleged network has not been broken up.
