According to the newspaper, Russia had been planning the assassination of opposition figure Garry Kasparov in the U.S. for several months. In the summer, U.S. authorities informed the founder of the Free Russia Forum that he was a "target" of the Kremlin. For the first time since moving to New York in 2013, he was provided with special protection, sources close to him reported. As El Mundo writes, the plans to assassinate Ilya Ponomarev - the only Russian deputy who voted against the annexation of Crimea and collaborated with Ukraine's territorial defense - were even more advanced. Both politicians were planned to be killed in the U.S., while a third victim was to be stabbed (or set on fire with gasoline) in Vilnius. Another potential target could have been opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza. Additionally, starting in 2024, Ivan Tyutrin, who lives in exile in Lithuania and founded the "Forum of Free Russia" in Vilnius with Kasparov, was also under scrutiny. ## ## The Kremlin is Ready for a New Level of Escalation The incidents mentioned indicate that the Kremlin is apparently ready to escalate both its pressure on dissidents and its aggression in the war, the newspaper states. The RIS Network has been active since at least 2024 and has participated in carrying out attacks, primarily in Europe, involving saboteurs and local criminals. It is now preparing attacks even in the U.S., where such special operations by Moscow had been informally banned for most of the Cold War. A person recruited by Moscow filmed two locations in Washington related to "victim No. 1" (as referred to by the U.S. prosecution), for whose assassination a reward of $40,000 was offered, writes El Mundo. The network had its own code for planning each stage: the phrase "measure the terrain and relay the dimensions" was used to denote preliminary surveillance, while "construction" referred to the next step - the assassination. They offered between $1,000 and $1,500 for the video recordings. The crime did not occur as the volunteer changed his mind. ## ## Five Accused in the U.S. The U.S. prosecution claims that the network included five men who recruited individuals for surveillance and assassination of opposition figures, as well as for carrying out sabotage in countries providing assistance to Ukraine. All five are charged with conspiracy to finance terrorist acts, and three of them are charged with conspiracy to commit murder for hire. According to the United States, the network included Yuri Khrameev - a retired colonel of the Russian special services (who boasted that he worked with Vladimir Putin in his youth) and his son Kirill, an FSB officer; two Cubans and one Venezuelan. All of them reside in Russia and are still wanted.
