In France, a criminal case has been initiated about a criminal community and about the preparation by an organized group of people of the murder of Gulagu.net founder Vladimir Osechkin. Osechkin himself announced this by publishing a document.
Osechkin claims that if it were not for the help of the French police, he would already "not be alive."
“The case is being investigated at the highest level in France by an investigating judge (vice-president of one of the divisions) of Paris. (By analogy with the Russian Federation – the level of the GSU TFR.) I am endowed with the status of victime (injured party). The investigating authorities are investigating these crimes in France (Biarritz, Cannes, Nice) and Spain.”
Osechkin recalled that a few weeks ago, one of the representatives of the French prosecutor's office issued a press release, not knowing all the details of the criminal case, and thus casting doubt on his words about the attempt. According to Osechkin, now he has more information. It turned out that, in fact, the FSB and the SVR began to select the perpetrators and organizers of contract killings back in 2021 in Spain and France. The secret services chose the perpetrators from among the “members of the criminal community”, who are supported from Moscow and give them the opportunity to “control the collection of the “common fund” in Russia in hundreds of institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service.” The founder of the human rights project claims that this is how the “off-budget fund of the FSB” is de facto replenished just for such “special events”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his secret services wanted to take revenge and kill Osechkin in this way because of the work of the Gulagu.net project and high-profile investigations, the human rights activist writes.
“An attempt to organize my murder is, in fact, an act of international terrorism, when the Russian special services want to kill a person they don’t like on the territory of a European democratic state, publicly showing that they have no borders and they can kill people like me and intimidate Russian civil activists and oppositionists."
Osechkin added that his life is now in danger and largely depends on the competence of the security service and the work of law enforcement agencies in Europe.
Earlier, Osechkin stated that on September 12, an assassination attempt was made on him in the French city of Biarritz. According to him, an accident helped stop the murder – he noticed a red dot of the sight on the wall. Before that, he was warned about a possible assassination attempt by Bellingcat investigator Hristo Grozev. He did not give details, as he claimed that he could not tell much "because of the secrecy of the investigation."
Vladimir Osechkin and his human rights project Gulagu.net are publicizing law-breaking cases in Russia's penitentiary system. In October 2021, Osechkin reported that he had more than 40 GB of videos, documents and photos at his disposal. These files testify to cases of mass torture in colonies under the jurisdiction of the Federal Penitentiary Service. The publication of the video caused a great resonance and a number of dismissals in the FSIN system. Sergei Savelyev, who handed over this archive to Osechkin, was also forced to leave Russia for France.