The Justice Department Charges Five People It Says Worked for Russian Intelligence in "a Global Assassination Network" — Including an Offer of $40,000 to Make a Russian Dissident Living Near Washington "Disappear" — and the Attorney General Says It Is "Our Job to Stop America's Adversaries From Unleashing Violence and Terror on American Soil"
On Sept. 15, 2026, federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed an indictment charging five people with working on behalf of Russian intelligence services to recruit operatives for surveillance, sabotage and killings: Yuri Khrameev, a 63-year-old former Russian intelligence colonel; his son Kirill Khrameev, 27, whom prosecutors describe as an FSB officer; Cuban nationals Oemis Romagoza Durruthy and Yaidel Delgado Suarez; and Venezuelan national Angel Eduardo Castro. All five remain at large. According to the Justice Department, a recruit was offered $40,000 in the summer of 2026 to kill a Russian dissident living in the Washington, D.C., area, and another was offered money for a killing in Lithuania. All five are charged with conspiracy to finance terrorism; three also face murder-for-hire conspiracy charges. The FBI said it disrupted the plot. The Kremlin declined to comment without what it called reasonable evidence.
“The charges announced reveal an alleged plot by the Russian intelligence services to murder a dissident on U.S. soil for daring to speak out against the Russian government. As alleged in the indictment, this plot exposes the lengths to which our adversaries will go to silence its critics and illustrates the grave threat transnational repression poses to the lives and freedoms of all who challenge authoritarian regimes.”