In France, four men suspected of preparing an attempt on the life of a Russian opposition figure in the city of Biarritz were detained, reported Le Figaro, citing the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office of France (PNAT). Le Parisien clarifies that the detainees were surveilling the founder of the Gulagu.net project, Vladimir Osechkin.
The men, aged 26 to 38, were detained on October 13 by officers of the Directorate General of Intelligence and Security. The publication claims that three of them are from Dagestan. A case has been opened for participation in a terrorist criminal community with the aim of preparing one or more crimes against a person.
According to Le Parisien, the investigation began on September 19 after a report of a possible conspiracy to kill Osechkin. Investigators found that the detainees traveled several times to his house in Biarritz from Paris and Nantes in the spring of 2024. In the phone of one of the men, law enforcement found videos taken from a car near the building where Osechkin was.
The suspects claimed they did not know who hired them, stating they came to Biarritz for a vacation and themselves became victims of manipulation. However, according to the investigation, it was likely reconnaissance for the preparation of a murder, possibly under the direction of Russian special services.
In February of this year, Osechkin was sentenced in absentia to eight years in a penal colony in a case of military «fakes» due to streams. Prior to this, the Ministry of Internal Affairs had repeatedly put him on the wanted list in a fraud case — the last time in the fall of 2021, shortly after his project Gulagu.net published videos of torture in a Saratov prison hospital.
* Recognized in Russia as a «foreign agent».