To the recent article regarding the hunt for journalist Inna Kurochkina, unleashed by the Russian regime, we add a detailed statement from Inna Kurochkina herself and the Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in exile, Akhmed Zakayev. Inna Kurochkina has applied for international protection in the Czech Republic because she has reasonable grounds to fear for her life and the lives of her loved ones.
It should be noted that there have been recent reports of threats and assassination attempts against public figures speaking out against the Russian regime. According to Garry Kasparov, he was warned of threats to his life by American and Lithuanian security services. Other cases involve the exiled representative of the Bashkir opposition, Ruslan Gabbasov, and Akhmed Zakayev himself.
Statement by Inna Kurochkina
I have known for several years that the Russian authorities want to prosecute me, but after my speech in the Italian Senate, where I spoke as the coordinator of the Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum, it became particularly clear. Thanks to my media presence, my anti-war work and criticism of Putin have long been known; however, after 2022, after I became the official representative of Akhmed Zakayev (Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in exile), Russian propagandists began to openly hate me.
Russian MP Andrei Lugovoy (who has been proven to have poisoned Litvinenko) sent an official letter to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation. In it, he demanded that the authorities take harsh action against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and against me. Lugovoy labeled me an accomplice of Zakayev. He claims that our work for the liberation of Chechnya is paid for by Khodorkovsky, which is, of course, not true.
On April 7, 2026, the main Russian television stations (Channel One, Channel 5, NTV, Vesti, REN TV, RT) broadcast 6 major propaganda films (I am attaching printed screenshots from the broadcasts).
In these television films, they show my photographs and video footage in which I am standing directly next to Akhmed Zakayev.
On television, they openly name me as a “terrorist” covered by the British secret service MI6. In the Russian reality, such a public designation means only one thing: state approval and the preparation of the public for my physical liquidation abroad.
The threat of an attack on my person is absolutely real. Russian secret services are actively murdering people in our circle:
Assassination attempt on Akhmed Zakayev (August 2026): The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officially confirmed that it thwarted a plan by the Russian FSB to assassinate Prime Minister Akhmed Zakayev, which was to take place on Ukraine’s Independence Day, August 24. (Sources: tsn.ua, nv.ua, newdosh.media).
Attacks on other colleagues (September 2026): On September 22, the SBU detained a woman in Kyiv, a contract killer sent by the FSB, who was preparing the murder of Akhmad Akhmedov. We also know of attempted attacks on other participants of our Forum, such as Ruslan Gabbasov and Valdas Bartkevičius.
Secret FSB unit (March 2026): The investigative website The Insider published evidence that a secret commando of the secret services has been formed in Russia with the task of kidnapping or killing Zakayev and people from his closest team. The bounty offered is 10 million dollars. All these events show that I face a real threat of assassination in Europe.
Links and documentation sources for Inna Kurochkina’s statement
Articles, video recordings, and documents mentioned in the attached statement:
Russian television programs about the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
- Channel One – report on the Russian designation of Ichkeria as a terrorist organization (April 7, 2026)
- Fifth Channel – report on the designation of Ichkeria as a terrorist organization (April 7, 2026)
- NTV – report on the Russian decision regarding Ichkeria (April 7, 2026)
- Vesti – television news about the decision concerning Ichkeria (April 7, 2026)
- REN TV – report claiming a connection between Ichkeria and the British MI6 (April 7, 2026)
- RT – program about Akhmed Zakayev, Ukraine, and his stay in Great Britain (April 7, 2026)
- Kavkaz.Realii / Radio Liberty – FSB against Ichkeria (April 8, 2026)
Reports of threats and assassination preparations
- Radio Liberty – How Russian secret services persecute people from the North Caucasus in Ukraine
- NV – report on the thwarted assassination attempt on Akhmed Zakayev
- LIGA.NET – report on the planned assassination of Akhmad Akhmedov in Kyiv (October 4, 2026)
- Nastoyashcheye Vremya – report on the preparation of an assassination attempt on Ruslan Gabbasov in Lithuania (April 9, 2026)
- Vot Tak – court proceedings in Lithuania regarding the preparations for the murder of Ruslan Gabbasov (October 9, 2026)
- LRT – investigation into the preparation of the murders of two people in Lithuania, including Valdas Bartkevičius (April 27, 2026)
- The Insider – investigation of the secret unit Center 795, linked to political murders abroad (March 13, 2026)
Information about Inna Kurochkina and public appearances
- FREEDOM – television program about Ichkeria and threats against Inna Kurochkina and Aset Sabb (October 9, 2026)
- MAGNIFICENT EIGHT – original article Hunt for a Journalist (October 9, 2026)
- Georgia Online – report on the persecution of journalist Inna Kurochkina (October 7, 2026)
- Chechenpress – report on the campaign against Inna Kurochkina (October 9, 2026)
- Fabrika novyn – post about threats to Inna Kurochkina and a possible life sentence in Russia (October 7, 2026)
International documents
- Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe – document on supporting Ichkeria’s efforts for full independence (September 30, 2026)
Source for MAGNIFICENT EIGHT: Inna Kurochkina’s Archive
Statement by Akhmed Zakayev for journalists
On March 13, 2026, the website The Insider published an investigation by journalists Christo Grozev and Roman Dobrokhotov titled “A secret unit of the secret services linked to political murders abroad.”
This investigation revealed a network of Russian secret service agents who were preparing political assassinations abroad. The investigation states that “the financial terms were clearly set. During a meeting in Moscow in October 2024, held in a restaurant minutes away from the FSB building on Lubyanka, Alimov (the client) handed over a deposit of 60 thousand dollars and offered Durovich a reward of approximately 1.5 million dollars for each successfully ‘deported’ target. If the operation succeeds, a reward exceeding 10 million dollars may be offered for a third person – wanted, in Alimov’s words, ‘dead or alive'”.
On April 7, 2026, a court in Grozny, in the occupied Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, decided to recognize the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as a “terrorist organization,” after which propaganda films aimed at supporters of Ichkeria were immediately broadcast on six state television channels of the RF on April 9.
In these films, among others, they show my Special Representative for Special Assignments, Inna Kurochkina.
The film features absurd accusations of a connection between the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the British intelligence service MI6, and direct threats are made against all supporters of Ichkeria.
On August 24, 2026, another assassination attempt was made against me in Kyiv.
The assassination was thwarted by the Ukrainian secret services, as reported in the international press, including on Radio Liberty, which also mentions the assassination attempt on Akhmed Akhmadov and the killing of the Ichkerian Zumso, who fought in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In the same Radio Liberty publication, experts from the Ukrainian secret services warn of the preparation of new assassinations on the territory of the European Union.
My Special Representative Inna Kurochkina, a journalist for the I NEWS media project and a member of the Coordinating Council of the Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum, was included on the list of terrorists and extremists on the Rosfinmonitoring website.
(Rosfinmonitoring: KUROCHKINA INNA YURYEVNA*, born May 30, 1972, Tbilisi, Georgian SSR)
Inna Kurochkina was designated as a foreign agent by the Ministry of Justice of the RF.
On October 3, 2026, Inna Kurochkina’s colleagues announced that they had managed to obtain information according to which, in 2025, the Basmanny Court of the city of Moscow initiated criminal proceedings against Inna Kurochkina under three articles simultaneously related to accusations of “terrorist activity,” linked to her journalistic activities, participation in the Coordinating Council of the Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum, and participation in the work of the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Under all these articles, she faces a prison sentence of up to life imprisonment.
On June 11, 2025, the Moscow City Court, without informing Inna Kurochkina, held an appeal hearing with a “court-appointed” lawyer and issued a resolution confirming the decision of the Basmanny Court and the issuance of an international warrant for Inna Kurochkina. (No. 10-11974/2025. APPEAL RESOLUTION, city of Moscow, June 11, 2025. File attached.)
Since 2022, programs with threats against Inna Kurochkina have begun to appear on Russian television channels, including from propagandist Nikita Mikhalkov in the program Besogon, from Ramzan Kadyrov, who threatened all participants of the forum in Prague on July 22–23, 2022, and from State Duma deputy Andrei Lugovoy, the murderer of Alexander Litvinenko.
Based on these facts and knowing the threat to her own life, Inna Kurochkina applied for international protection in the Czech Republic, where she has been a resident since 2010.
These facts regarding the threat to Inna Kurochkina’s life must be published immediately, as it is known that judicial persecution in the RF and the propaganda campaign on Kremlin television channels signify the preparation of an assassination attempt on Inna Kurochkina’s life.
It is necessary to recall that in 2006, the authorities in the RF passed a law that allows Russian secret services to eliminate “enemies of the Kremlin abroad.”
Respectfully,
Akhmed Zakayev
Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
- October 2026
Original Russian version of the statement on Chechenpress (published October 16, 2026)
