Garry Kasparov and Gennady Gudkov were accused of creating a “terrorist community.” A court in Komi arrested them in absentia

The Syktyvkar City Court arrested Russian chess player Garry Kasparov and former State Duma deputy Gennady Gudkov in absentia on charges of creating a “terrorist community,” financing “terrorist activities,” and public calls for terrorism.

Along with them, activist Evgenia Chirikova and former executive director of the Russian Solidarity movement Ivan Tyutrin were also charged in absentia. All four are charged with articles 205.1, 205.2 and 205.4. A criminal case was initiated based on materials from the Russian FSB Directorate for the Komi Republic, as specified in the court’s press release.

The plot of the accusation and details are not disclosed in the message. It is also not specified why the case was initiated by the FSB department for Komi.

In December 2023, State Duma deputy from Yekaterinburg Andrei Alshevskikh published the response he received from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in which it was reported that an inspection had been carried out against Kasparov, and his actions “showed signs of a crime” under the article on the activities of an “undesirable” organization (Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code) . The Investigative Committee did not officially announce the initiation of a case against Kasparov.

In March 2024, Kasparov was added to the list of “terrorists and extremists” maintained by Rosfinmonitoring. His last name has an asterisk, indicating a criminal case brought against him under the “terrorist” article. Gudkov, Tyutrin and Chirikova were included in this list even earlier.

In 2016, Kasparov, who lives in Lithuania, together with Tyutrin founded the Free Russia Forum. Since the beginning of a full-scale war, the organization has been holding anti-war conferences, to which it invites various representatives of the Russian opposition.