Federal prosecutors have charged five people in what the United States alleges was a Russian intelligence-linked network that financed attacks abroad and reached into the United States with a $40,000 offer to kill a prominent Russian dissident believed to be living near Washington.
The newly unsealed indictment describes a two-year campaign of surveillance, recruitment and attempted violence spanning the United States, Lithuania and the Czech Republic. All five defendants are charged with conspiracy to finance terrorism. Three — former Russian intelligence colonel Yuri Khrameev, Cuban national Yaidel Delgado Suarez and Venezuelan national Angel Eduardo Castro — are also charged with conspiracy to commit murder for hire.
The charges are allegations, not findings of guilt. The defendants remain at large, and the Justice Department said all are believed to be living in Russia. Prosecutors have not identified the dissidents named as victims in the court filing. Russia has not accepted the U.S. account: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Moscow would not comment without credible evidence grounded in tangible facts, according to Reuters.
A surveillance job became an alleged killing offer
Prosecutors say Suarez and Castro recruited a Venezuelan citizen living in Brooklyn during July and August to conduct surveillance on two locations publicly associated with the U.S.-based dissident. The resident allegedly received explicit instructions to begin recording before reaching the property, keep the phone discreet and emphasize the house. The network promised between $1,000 and $1,500 for photographs and video.
After the surveillance material was delivered, the government alleges, Suarez and Castro offered $40,000 to “eliminate” or “disappear” the target. The Brooklyn resident declined to carry out the killing and was then asked to find someone else. The indictment says Suarez referred to another team in Mexico but said it was delayed, while continuing to seek additional recruits in the United States.
Federal officials said the FBI disrupted the plan before an attack occurred. Darren Cox, who leads the bureau’s Washington field office, said investigators moved quickly after identifying the threat. The Associated Press reported that the surveillance recruit was not charged or publicly named.
A broader network alleged across Europe
The Washington-area case is one part of a wider accusation. Prosecutors identify Yuri Khrameev, 63, as a former Russian intelligence colonel; his son Kirill Khrameev, 27, as an officer in Russia’s Federal Security Service; and Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, 35, as a Cuban national who allegedly coordinated attacks and logistics for the network. Suarez, 35, and Castro, 22, are described as recruiters.
The indictment says the network approached a U.S. citizen in 2025 to surveil another Russian dissident near Vilnius, Lithuania. That recruit allegedly accepted about $200 for photographs but rejected a $25,000 offer to kill the target. Prosecutors say Yuri Khrameev then proposed arson against warehouses, transportation sites or electrical infrastructure in countries supporting Ukraine.
Durruthy is separately accused of coordinating logistics for attempted attacks in Prague and Lithuania in 2024. The alleged Czech plan targeted buses; the Lithuanian target was a facility supplying radio equipment to Ukraine. Reporting by CBS News connected those allegations to earlier European investigations that blamed Russia for covert sabotage efforts.
Why the charges matter
The case is significant because prosecutors are not describing a lone overseas threat or an online solicitation that never moved beyond talk. They allege that a state-linked network recruited people inside the United States, obtained surveillance of addresses tied to a dissident and continued seeking a killer after the first recruit refused.
The charging structure also matters. Conspiracy to finance terrorism carries a maximum 20-year prison term, while the murder-for-hire conspiracy carries a maximum 10-year term. Those are statutory maximums, and any sentence would depend on convictions and later judicial findings. Bringing the defendants to a U.S. courtroom could be difficult while they remain in Russia, beyond immediate American custody.
The allegations fit a broader national-security concern known as transnational repression: governments attempting to intimidate, surveil or harm critics beyond their borders. Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg called the alleged operation a violation of U.S. sovereignty. That assertion remains the government’s case to prove, but the surveillance described in the filing makes the threat more concrete than a general intelligence warning.
The next steps are partly legal and partly diplomatic. Prosecutors can seek arrests if any defendant travels to a cooperating jurisdiction, while the FBI can continue identifying recruiters, money flows and potential targets. Investigators have not said whether additional charges are expected. For now, the most consequential confirmed development is that the plot was disrupted, the alleged network has been publicly identified, and the five defendants remain at large.
