Russian intelligence services planned targeted assassinations against prominent opposition figures, including Garry Kasparov, during the summer on United States soil. United States authorities alerted the founder of Free Russia Forum that he was an explicit target of a Kremlin elimination plot, prompting federal officials to grant him special security protection for the first time since his 2013 exile.
Escalating Kremlin Operations on American Soil
The aggressive crackdown marks a stark evolution in Moscow’s foreign intelligence operations. While Russian security services have historically targeted defectors and critics across Europe, operating active assassination plots within the United States remained largely unprecedented even during the most part of the Cold War. The last high-profile assassination attributed to Moscow on American territory occurred in 1941, involving the suspicious suicide of a former NKVD intelligence defector.
Federal prosecutors have unsealed details regarding a five-man conspiracy network answering directly to the Kremlin, designated within investigative files as the ‘Red RIS’. Operating since at least 2024, this syndicate deployed local criminals and saboteurs to execute operations across Western nations aiding Ukraine. This summer, however, the network pivoted toward high-stakes operations inside North America, expanding Vladimir Putin’s campaign against political enemies into American cities.
Decades of Security Threats Against Garry Kasparov
For Kasparov, living under the shadow of state-sponsored violence is an enduring reality. Shortly after stepping away from professional chess in 2005 to pursue political activism full-time, the champion retained a dedicated detail of eight bodyguards. Beyond standard personal security, his detail routinely inspected and managed his food and water supply to eliminate the risk of public poisoning. In 2012, Kasparov remarked to author Masha Gessen that the single greatest luxury of traveling abroad was temporary relief from his constant security entourage.
Threats intensified exponentially following his 2013 relocation to New York. The Russian government steadily escalated its judicial and extrajudicial pressure campaign. Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow designated Kasparov a foreign agent, subsequently adding him to the official registry of terrorists and extremists in 2024. By May of this year, the Russian state escalated matters further by placing him on an international wanted list.
The Targeted Plot Against Ilya Ponomarev
While the threat against Kasparov commanded immense security responses, federal filings indicate that advanced assassination plots targeted Ilya Ponomarev, an ex-Russian deputy. Ponomarev remains the only member of the Duma who voted against the 2014 annexation of Crimea. Operating from exile in Ukraine, he actively supported the armed territorial defense of Ukraine, founded the opposition media outlet Utro Fevralya, and launched the Congress of People’s Deputies as a political alternative to the Putin regime.
Ponomarev, who divides his time between Kyiv and Washington, D.C., claims to have survived five prior assassination attempts. United States court documents detail how a local operative recruited by Moscow was tasked with surveilling two Washington locations tied to the individual the Fiscalía de EEUU denotes as ‘Víctima Número 1’. The operative received instructions to capture video evidence lasting at least thirty seconds from multiple angles, proving the footage was current by displaying a designated hand gesture, such as a thumbs-up or an OK sign, within the frame. Moscow handlers offered between $1,000 and $1,500 for the images, while pricing the ultimate assassination contract at $40,000. The operational surveillance was ultimately compromised by local security cameras, and the assigned operative abandoned the mission before execution.
A Multi-Pronged Transnational Conspiracy
Court filings from the United States prosecution team outline a diverse five-man network linked directly to Russian intelligence handlers. Alongside the foiled American operations, the broader conspiracy encompassed coordinated violent acts across international borders, including a planned assault in Vilnius, Lithuania, where a third targeted dissident faced execution by stabbing or gasoline immolation.
As the international community reacts to these disclosures, the active targeting of exiled figures inside the United States highlights a fundamental shift in geopolitical conflict. The Kremlin’s willingness to deploy sabotage networks onto American soil forces an immediate reassessment of domestic security protocols for political exiles, turning peaceful Western neighborhoods into frontlines of an undeclared intelligence war.
