A group of Russian assassins hired by President Vladimir Putin are accused of trying to execute an exiled dissident now living in France.
Vladimir Osechkin said he was evacuated from his home in Biarritz last month by French police overnight, Knewz.com has learned.
Osechkin, 41, who survived a prior attempt on his life 18 months ago, said he was evacuated, following a tip-off an execution squad had been dispatched by Russian secret services, the Mirror reported.
The human rights campaigner and founder of Gulagu.net, was forced to flee after work he was involved in helped to uncover torture and sexual violence in Russian prisons.
Just days after Osechkin was moved last month, Russian helicopter pilot defector Maxim Kuzminov, 28, was found murdered in a flat near Benidorm in Spain.
Osechkin survived a prior assassination attempt in September 2022, when he was shot at while having dinner in his home with his wife and children.
Osechkin spoke with the Spanish news website El Español about the latest attempt on his life saying, “The French authorities received information last month a group that had the mission of assassinating me had landed and they transferred me to a safe house for three weeks. A few days afterwards, Kuzminov was killed in Spain, and they did away with Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in prison. I’ve decided to return to my home in Biarritz because I need to continue with my work and my mission.”
He also told the station, “Russia’s Federal Security Service gained control of mafia bosses like Badri. If they refused to work for the Kremlin they were killed or arrested and jailed. In prison, they were sodomized, and the rapes filmed. Afterwards, a prison officer would approach them and say ‘Hello, I’m your friend. I’ve got a pen drive here you might be interested in.’ The mafia bosses ended up giving in to this blackmail because they lose their top dog spot if the images are published.”
Badri is Georgian mafia chief Badri Koguashvili. The 59-year-old, known as “Kutaissy,” is responsible for the prior attempt on Osechkin’s life. Osechkin was moved by the French secret services to Biarritz in 2015 following credible threats to his life.
Kutaissy was reportedly flown from Athens to France in August 2022 before going to Spain to recruit the gang he allegedly hired to assassinate Osechkin, according to the Mirror.
Osechkin said, “When I was leaked the information in 2022 that Badri planned to kill me, they told me he had arranged with other Russian crime bosses in Spain to end my life in France.”
Osechkin also sounded the alarm bells about the treatment Navalny in prison. The 47-year-old Russian opposition leader died under mysterious circumstances in prison on February 16.
In an interview last year with France 24, Osechkin said Navalny “is being abused…They are trying to break him psychologically in order to break his will. He is regularly put into the solitary confinement cells. We even have evidence that the Russian secret services have set up a wiretap of the office where he meets with his lawyer.”
The post ‘Putin’s Hitmen’ Attempted Assassination of Russian Dissident in France a Month After Spanish Murder, Police Allege appeared first on Knewz.
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Author: Kelly Hartog
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