NEW YORK — Russian intelligence operatives have been working on plans to carry out targeted killings in the United States and European countries that support Ukraine, federal officials said Tuesday. The announcement came as authorities revealed they had disrupted an alleged plot to assassinate a prominent Russian dissident believed to be living in Washington, DC.
An indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court charges five people who are believed to be living outside the United States in connection with the alleged scheme.
According to the indictment, a network linked to Russia’s intelligence services has, since 2024, paid or attempted to pay people in the US and other countries to track Russian dissidents and ultimately kill them.
The network also allegedly approached recruits about carrying out terrorist attacks against civilian and military infrastructure in European nations viewed as supporters or allies of Ukraine.
James C. Barnacle Jr., who leads the FBI’s New York office, said investigators stopped the alleged operations through what he described as “relentless work.” He accused Russian intelligence personnel and their affiliates of conspiring to “intimidate, threaten, or murder people on US soil and around the world.”
Darren B. Cox, head of the FBI’s Washington, DC, field office, credited “extraordinary work by multiple FBI field offices, components, and partner agencies,” saying authorities acted quickly to disrupt the alleged plot.
The FBI said the network, which allegedly operated on behalf of Russian intelligence services, had conspired to carry out attacks and killings across the globe since at least 2024, including inside the United States.
The group initially concentrated on Russian dissidents and defectors, authorities said. After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, however, its focus expanded to countries considered aligned with Kyiv.
In recent months, members of the network also allegedly sought to recruit several people inside the United States, according to the federal release.
US Attorney Jamie McDonald said the suspects charged in the case were allegedly part of a Russian-led effort that aimed to “cause destruction and mayhem around the world, including right here in the United States.”
Three of the people named in the indictment were described by authorities as senior figures connected to Russian intelligence services.
They include Yuri Khrameev, identified as a former colonel in the Russian intelligence services; his son, Kirill Khrameev, described as an officer with Russia’s Federal Security Service; and Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, a Cuban national and prominent figure in the Cuban diaspora who lives in Russia.
The indictment describes the Federal Security Service, or FSB, as Russia’s primary security agency and the successor to the Soviet Union’s Committee for State Security, better known as the KGB.
Yuri Khrameev, along with Yaidel Delgado Suarez and Angel Eduardo Castro — both of whom are believed to live in Russia — allegedly recruited a Venezuelan national residing in Brooklyn to monitor and kill a prominent Russian dissident believed to be based in Washington, DC.
The Brooklyn resident was allegedly directed to visit two sites connected to the intended target and received detailed guidance on how to conduct surveillance. The person was reportedly promised $1,000 for the initial work and an additional $1,500 to carry out the killing.
After conducting the surveillance and providing multiple photographs and videos of locations associated with the intended victim, the US resident turned down the $40,000 that was offered to “eliminate” or “disappear” the target through murder, authorities said.
When the offer was rejected, the member of the intelligence services who made it offered multiple other people within the United States substantial amounts of money to finish the job, the indictment said.
