French police foil plot targeting Russian activist
A rights organisation for inmates in Russia’s infamously harsh prison system was established by Vladimir Osechkin and is called Gulagu.net.
France’s national anti-terror prosecution office announced Thursday night that four individuals were arrested by French police on suspicion of plotting to harm exiled Russian rights campaigner Vladimir Osechkin, who reveals abuses in Russian jails.
According to the anti-terror prosecution office, the investigation has been spearheaded by France’s counter-espionage and counterterror intelligence (DGSI), the General Directorate for Internal Security.
The report stated that the four individuals were taken into custody on Monday, but it provided no information regarding their nationalities, potential reasons for allegedly targeting Osechkin, or if they are thought to have ties to foreign spy services.
established the rights organisation Gulagu.net for inmates in Russia’s infamously harsh penal system.Even when living in exile in Biarritz, a seaside resort town on the southwest coast of France, Osechkin has long harboured suspicions that he may be the target of an assassination attempt due to his job.
Osechkin claimed in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday that he had received numerous threats against his life since 2022, the most recent of which occurred in February of this year.
Despite the fact that French police made arrests in response to those death threats, he feels that he is still in danger. He also mentioned that he and his family are frequently relocated to safe places when new threats surface.
“Those who were arrested are just a part of the overall picture, they are part of a big team,” he stated.After Osechkin fled Russia due to pressure from authorities for his activities in prison, he applied for political asylum in France.
He was one of the first to expose that Russia’s military was enlisting inmates to fight in Ukraine, and his organisation frequently releases footage and testimonies of purported torture and corruption in Russian prisons.
Pavel Filatiev, a Russian paratrooper on the run, was also brought to France in 2022 thanks to Gulagu.net. After suffering injuries during the conflict in Ukraine, Filatiev wrote online reports of his experiences, accusing the Russian military leadership of betraying their own soldiers due to corruption and ineptitude.
The DGSI is one of the French agencies looking into what authorities claim is a persistent attempt by Russia and proxies under its direction to destabilise France through cyberattacks and other actions, as part of a larger purported Russian sabotage and hybrid warfare campaign against Ukraine’s European allies.
SOURCE :EURO News
