Exiled Russian dissident claims he narrowly avoided being assassinated by Putin’s hitmen

AN exiled Russian dissident claims he has narrowly avoided being assassinated by Valdimir Putin’s hitmen.

Vladimir Osechkin, 42, said he was moved out of his home in Biarritz, France, by police who were tipped off that a Kremlin execution squad was on their way.

Human rights activist Osechkin, who operates the anti-corruption website Gulagu.net, was taken to a safe house.

Days later, on February 13, Russian helicopter pilot defector Maxim Kuzminov, 28, was found murdered in a flat near Benidorm, Spain.

Osechkin said: “Russia’s Federal Security Service gained control of mafia bosses like Badri.

“If they refused to work for the Kremlin they were killed or arrested and jailed.

“In prison they were sodomised and the rapes filmed.

“Afterwards a prison officer would approach them and say ‘Hello, I’m your friend. I’ve got a pen drive here you might be interested in.’

“The mafia bosses ended up giving in to this blackmail because they lose their top dog spot if the images are published.”

He added in an interview with El Espanol: “When I was leaked the information in 2022 that Badri planned to kill me, they told me he had arranged with other Russian crime bosses in Spain to end my life in France.

“The idea was to come to Europe, organise my execution and return immediately to Russia through Montenegro or Istanbul.”

Osechkin survived an assassination attempt in 2022 when he was shot at while having dinner in his home with his family.