According to reports in several media outlets, Garry Kasparov was among a number of Russian dissidents abroad targeted in an alleged Russian assassination plot. As first reported by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, US prosecutors have charged five people accused of working for Russian intelligence services to plan attacks on Russian opposition figures and carry out acts of sabotage.

Kasparov was reportedly warned by US and Lithuanian security services this summer that he could be among the targets of planned attacks on Russian exiles. He and his wife were subsequently placed under protection. The US indictment itself does not identify Kasparov by name.

Another reported target was former Russian MP Ilya Ponomarev, who was the only one of 450 members of the State Duma to vote against Russia's annexation of Crimea. In 2014, after travelling to the United States, Ponomarev did not return to Russia because he feared for his life. He moved to Ukraine in 2016 and, after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, spent some time fighting alongside Ukrainian forces. More recently, he has divided his time between Ukraine and the United States.

Kasparov had already decided not to return to Russia after travelling abroad in 2013. The former World Champion, who became active in the Russian opposition after retiring from professional chess, feared for his life. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian authorities designated Kasparov a "foreign agent" and later added him to their list of "terrorists and extremists". In May 2026, a Russian court issued an international arrest warrant for him.

Vladimir Kara-Murza has also been mentioned as a possible target. The Russian opposition politician survived two suspected poisonings and was later imprisoned in Siberia. In 2024, he was released as part of a major prisoner exchange involving Russian agents.

According to El Mundo, the alleged network is led by Yuri Khrameev, a former colonel in the Russian intelligence services. His son Kirill, an FSB officer, is also accused of belonging to the network, along with Cuban nationals Oemis Romagoza Durruthy and Yaidel Delgado Suarez and Venezuelan national Angel Eduardo Castro. US prosecutors say the five worked for Russian intelligence services, recruiting people to conduct surveillance and targeted killings as well as acts of sabotage. All five are believed to be in Russia and remain at large.

The network is also alleged to have planned the murder of Ivan Tyutrin, a Russian opposition activist living in Lithuania who co-founded the Free Russia Forum with Kasparov in 2016. Russian authorities designated the organization "undesirable" in 2023 and added it to their list of "terrorist organizations" in 2025.

Russian intelligence services have previously been accused of attacks on opponents and defectors in Europe. Among the best-known cases are the 2018 Novichok poisoning of former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, which both survived; the 2019 murder of Chechen-Georgian dissident Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin; and the 2024 killing in Spain of Russian helicopter pilot Maxim Kuzminov, who had defected to Ukraine.

The United States, however, had largely been avoided as a venue for such operations. The new US indictment alleges that members of the network recruited people inside the United States to surveil Russian dissidents and carry out killings. If proven, the case would mark a significant expansion of such operations onto US soil.

How I became World Champion Vol.1 1973-1985

Garry Kasparov's rise to the top was meteoric and at his very first attempt he managed to become World Champion, the youngest of all time. In over six hours of video, he gives a first hand account of crucial events from recent chess history, you can improve your chess understanding and enjoy explanations and comments from a unique and outstanding personality on and off the chess board.