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A criminal proceeding in connection with a criminal organization and the preparation by an organized group of persons of the assassination of the founder of Gulagu.net Vladimir Osechkin has been opened in France, Osechkin himself has reported by publishing the relevant document.
Osechkin claims he would “no longer have been alive but for the French police.”
“The case is being investigated at the highest level in France by the investigating judge (vice-president of one of the divisions) of Paris. (By analogy with the Russian Federation, at the level of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee). I have the status of victime (injured party). The investigative agencies have been investigating these crimes in France (Biarritz, Cannes, Nice) and Spain”.
Osechkin recalled that a few weeks ago, a representative of the French prosecutor's office issued a press release without knowing all the details of the criminal case, thereby casting doubt on his words about the assassination attempt. According to Osechkin, he now has more information. It turned out that the FSB and SVR had indeed begun picking would-be hitmen and contract hit organizers in Spain and France as early as 2021. The special services chose the perpetrators from among the “members of a criminal organization,” who had Moscow’s support and permission to “control the collection of criminal slush fund in Russia from hundreds of Federal Penitentiary Service facilities.” The human rights project founder claims that this is how the FSB's “off-budget cash reserve” is replenished for the implementation of such “special measures”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his special services wanted to take revenge and kill Osechkin in this way because of the work being done by the Gulagu.net project and his high-profile investigations, the human rights activist says.
“The attempt to arrange my assassination is in fact an act of international terrorism, when the Russian secret services want to kill a person they dislike on the territory of a democratic European state to show the public that there are no limits for them, and they can kill people like me and intimidate Russian civil activists and oppositionists.”
Osechkin added that currently his life is in danger and depends on the competence of the European security service and the work of the law enforcement agencies.
Earlier, Osechkin said that an assassination attempt was made on him in Biarritz, France, on September 12. According to him, it was by chance that the murder was foiled - he noticed a red dot on the wall. Before that, he had been warned about possible assassination by Bellingcat investigator Hristo Grozev. He didn't offer any details, claiming he couldn't tell much “because of the investigation secrecy”.
Vladimir Osechkin and his human rights project Gulagu.net have been engaged in publicizing cases of lawlessness in the Russian penitentiary system. In October 2021, Osechkin reported having in his possession more than 40 GB of videos, documents and photos evidencing mass torture in penal colonies under the jurisdiction of the Federal Penitentiary Service. The publication of the videos caused a great resonance and a number of dismissals within the Federal Penitentiary Service system. Sergei Savelyev, who gave Osechkin the archive, was also forced to leave Russia for France.