Rafis Kashapov of the Government of Independent Tatarstan in Exile on the death of Sergei Vlasenko in Warsaw and the wider security concerns surrounding Russian opposition figures in Poland:
In Warsaw, 71-year-old Sergei Vlasenko, a member of the Russian opposition group “Congress of People’s Deputies,” was found dead. His body was discovered in an apartment in the Mokotów district, according to Polish media.
Vlasenko’s associates suggest that he may have been murdered. According to SOTA, his roommate, also a member of the “Congress of People’s Deputies,” found his body with a head injury.
One of the organizers of the “Congress,” former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev, stated that the nature of the injuries, in his opinion, indicates murder, but he noted that the police are requesting expert opinions.
Just recently, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that his country had arrested a Russian citizen who had been recruited by Russian intelligence to assassinate a Ukrainian-American citizen in Warsaw. The target was supposed to be a businessman in the arms industry who supplied Ukraine. The arrested individual is a 29-year-old resident of the Donbas region.
As a reminder, on June 15, 2026, around 10 a.m., Russian artist Semen Skrepetsky (real name – Robert Kuzovkov), 44, was shot dead in the parking lot on Queen Jadwiga Street in the Polish city of Biała Podlaska.
On August 17, 2026, the security services of one of the European countries also received information about a planned assassination attempt on Nafis Kashapov, the deputy prime minister of the government-in-exile of the independent Tatarstan, who resides in Warsaw. Previously, Nafis had repeatedly received threats from Chechens associated with Kadyrov.
Sincerely,
The Government of the Independent Tatarstan in Exile
