France Detains 4 in Plot to Kill Russian Activist

French police have placed Russian activist Vladimir Osechkin under constant protection since 2022 after receiving information that Russia sought to kill him. In April 2025, authorities detained four men from Russia's Dagestan region following their surveillance of his home in the southwestern beach resort of Biarritz, court documents indicate.

The men, three of whom traveled to Biarritz, spent several hours filming and photographing Osechkin's residence and surroundings as preparation for an assassination aimed at intimidating political opponents of Russian authorities in France, according to the documents. One suspect had multiple criminal convictions, and another had fled Russia after arrest by its domestic security service to avoid deployment to Ukraine.

Osechkin, who moved to France in 2015, founded a prisoners' rights group and runs a project exposing abuses in Russia's prison system. Threats intensified after he began investigating alleged Russian misconduct in Ukraine and aiding military defectors. "If it weren't for them, I probably would have been killed," he said of the police escorts required for routine tasks like school drop-offs or grocery shopping. Years earlier,...