US foils Russian plot to kill dissident in Washington, charges five
US authorities said on Tuesday that Russian intelligence services were plotting targeted killings in the United States and in European countries supporting Ukraine, and announced that they had foiled a plan to kill a prominent Russian dissident believed to be living in Washington, DC.
Five people believed to be living abroad have been charged in the case, according to an indictment unsealed in a federal court in Manhattan. Investigators said a network linked to the Russian Federation’s intelligence services had, since 2024, paid and tried to pay people in the US and other countries to track and kill Russian dissidents.
The indictment also said people recruited by the network were asked to carry out acts of terrorism against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries seen as aligned with Ukraine.
James C. Barnacle Jr., who heads the FBI’s New York office, said the agency disrupted the plans “through relentless work” as members of the intelligence services and their affiliates “conspired to intimidate, threaten, or murder people on US soil and around the world”.
Darren B. Cox, head of the FBI’s Washington field office, said in a release that “extraordinary work by multiple FBI field offices, components, and partner agencies” helped officials move quickly to stop the plot.
According to the release, people working for the Russian Federation’s intelligence services had, since at least 2024, conspired to carry out, and had carried out, attacks and murders around the world, including in the United States.
The release said the network had earlier focused on Russian dissidents and defectors. After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, it began targeting countries perceived to be allies of Ukraine. It also said members of the network had recently tried to recruit several people in the United States.
US Attorney Jamie McDonald said the Russian-led network was made up of people who “conspired to cause destruction and mayhem around the world, including right here in the United States”.
Among those charged are three senior members of the Russian intelligence services, authorities said. They were identified as Yuri Khrameev, a former colonel in the Russian intelligence services; his son, Kirill Khrameev, an officer in Russia’s Federal Security Service; and Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, a Cuban national described as an influential member of the Cuban diaspora living in Russia.
The indictment said the Federal Security Service is Russia’s main security agency and the successor to the Soviet-era Committee for State Security, known as the KGB.
Investigators said Yuri Khrameev and two others named in the indictment, Yaidel Delgado Suarez and Angel Eduardo Castro, both living in Russia, recruited a Venezuelan citizen living in Brooklyn to watch and kill a prominent Russian dissident they believed was living in Washington, DC.
According to the indictment, the Brooklyn resident was sent to two locations linked to the intended victim and was given “explicit instructions on how to conduct surveillance”, with promises of USD 1,000 and USD 1,500 for the work.
Authorities said the US resident carried out the surveillance and provided several photographs and videos of places linked to the intended target, but later refused an offer of USD 40,000 to “eliminate” or “disappear” the dissident through murder.
The indictment said that after the offer was rejected, the intelligence services member who made it approached several other people in the United States and offered them large sums of money to complete the killing.
The case centres on an alleged Russian intelligence-linked network that US authorities say sought to surveil, threaten and kill dissidents, while also trying to organise attacks in countries backing Ukraine, with investigators saying they moved in time to stop one such plot in the US.
