20 anti war critic including oil tycoon Khodorkovsky, Grandmaster Garry Kasparov are accused of terrorism in Russia
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "20 anti war critic including oil tycoon Khodorkovsky, Grandmaster Garry Kasparov are accused of terrorism in Russia")
Mikhail Khodorkovsky Photograph: (Social Media)
Russia’s FSB charges exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and 20 others, including Kasparov and Schulmann, with terrorism and plotting to overthrow Putin.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) on October 14, 2025, started a criminal investigation against prominent Kremlin critic and oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. FSB announced the 'terrorism' charges on Tuesday. Notably, Khodorkovsky was part of the Russian Anti-War Committee, founded abroad in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Besides Khodorkovsky, the FSB is targeting 20 others, including Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza, political commentator Yekatrina Schulmann, chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov and philanthropist Boris Zimin.
They have been accused of funding ‘terrorist Ukrainian paramilitary nationalist units’ and recruiting members to overthrow Russian leadership.
FSB has accused that the Anti-War Committee was calling for the ‘liquidation' of the Russian government and pushing for the creation of the ’Platform for Russian Democratic Forces' via the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). FSB also said that Khodorkovsky has claimed the ’Platform for Russian Democratic Forces' as a “transitional assembly” and alternative government.
However, Khodorkovsky denied these allegations, specifically the part of funding Ukrainian paramilitary to seize Russian power. The Russian Anti-War Committee was designated as an undesirable organisation by Moscow in January 2024. If convicted, they could face extradition and life imprisonment.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky is an exiled Russian Oligarch, who was once the richest man in Russia in 2003. He then confronted Putin and his government of corruption. Khodorkovsky was arrested and sent to a Siberian prison, where he spent nearly a decade. In 2013, Putin pardoned him, but he left Moscow in 2015 and has been living in Exile in London since then.
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Vladimir Kara-Murza was a prominent Kremlin critic and activist who is currently imprisoned, serving a 25-year sentence in Russia on the charges of treason. According to Amnesty International, he has survived two assassination attempts, which he attributes to Russia's Federal Security Service.
Yekatrina Schulmann was a political scientist and professor at Moscow school for Social and Economic Sciences till 2022; since then, she has been living in exile in Germany and is considered a foreign agent has an arrest warrant against her in absentia.
Gary Kasparov is a FIDE Grandmaster and was previously placed on Russia’s list of “terrorists and extremists” by Rosfinmonitoring (the financial watchdog) and similarly designated as a “foreign agent.” He also has an arrest warrant against him in absentia, accusing him of creating a terrorist society, leading it, financing terrorist activities, and publicly justifying them.
