DOJ Indicts Five Alleged Russian Intelligence Operatives Over Plot to Kill U.S.-Based Dissident

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment Tuesday, September 15, accusing five men connected to Russian intelligence of running what the Justice Department called a "global assassination network" aimed at Kremlin critics, with one plot allegedly reaching U.S. soil this summer.

The indictment names Yuri Khrameev, a 63-year-old former Russian intelligence colonel; his 27-year-old son Kirill Khrameev; two Cuban nationals, Yaidel Delgado Suarez, 35, and Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, 35; and a Venezuelan national, Angel Eduardo Castro, 22. Prosecutors call the group the "RIS Network." All five are believed to be in Russia and remain at large, according to the Department of Justice.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said in a statement carried by Courthouse News Service that the defendants "allegedly operated as part of a global assassination network that reached into the United States, attempting to recruit U.S. citizens and foreigners to carry out killings at the behest of the Kremlin." He called it "a gross violation of our sovereignty."

The Brooklyn recruitment

According to the indictment, Suarez and Castro recruited a Venezuelan citizen living in Brooklyn this summer to surveil, and ultimately kill, a prominent Russian dissident the operatives believed was living in the Washington, D.C. area. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed that detail at a press briefing Tuesday, according to CBS News.

The recruit was sent to two locations tied to the target and paid between $1,000 and $1,500 for photos and video, court papers say. He was then offered $40,000 to "eliminate" or "disappear" the target, but he declined, telling the operatives he wouldn't "do the other stuff."

Prosecutors quoted a text message from Suarez pressing for a replacement: "Let me know as soon as possible because I have a chain and my boss has questions. I have people in Mexico right now [but they're] delayed. I only need a response to know if someone can do the work." The indictment says the network then tried recruiting other people in the U.S. after the initial refusal.

The Lithuania plot

A separate count accuses Yuri Khrameev and his son of trying, in 2025, to recruit a U.S. citizen at the Estonia-Russia border to kill a person in Lithuania described in the indictment as someone "telling lies about Russia." That recruit was paid $200 for surveillance photos, then allegedly offered $25,000 to carry out the killing.

When the recruit refused, Yuri Khrameev allegedly pivoted to a fallback offer: burning down a warehouse or an electrical substation instead. He told the recruit he wanted "serious money for serious work" targeting pro-Ukrainian countries.

The Justice Department said the network's activity extended beyond individual assassinations. Members allegedly solicited associates to attack civilian and military infrastructure in European countries perceived as aligned with Ukraine, according to the Associated Press account carried by CTV News and MyNorthwest. Officials say the network has operated since at least 2024, shifting in recent months from targeting Russian dissidents and defectors toward targeting supporters of Ukraine more broadly.

FBI response

James C. Barnacle Jr., head of the FBI's New York field office, said the bureau disrupted the plans "through relentless work" as network members "conspired to intimidate, threaten, or murder people on U.S. soil and around the world," according to The Guardian and The Hindu. Darren B. Cox, who leads the FBI's Washington field office, credited "extraordinary work by multiple FBI field offices, components, and partner agencies" for disrupting what he described as Russian attempts to strike inside the U.S. capital.

The charges include conspiracy to finance terrorism and murder-for-hire conspiracy. None of the five defendants has been arrested. All remain at large and are believed to be in Russia, which has no extradition treaty with the United States, meaning prosecutors are unlikely to see any of them in a U.S. courtroom absent voluntary travel to a country willing to detain them.

The indictment lands amid a broader run of Russia-linked incidents across NATO's eastern flank this week, including a suspected Russian drone that crossed into Lithuanian airspace from Belarus and was shot down by an Italian jet on a NATO mission, and a Danish accusation that a Russian warship fired flares near a military helicopter in the Baltic Sea, both reported by The Independent. Nothing in the unsealed indictment ties those separate incidents to the RIS Network defendants, and no source has drawn that connection.

What remains unresolved is whether any of the five will ever face a U.S. judge, and whether the unnamed dissident targeted in the Washington-area plot has been notified or offered protection. The Justice Department has not said.