US authorities have accused Russian intelligence operatives of allegedly arranging a murder-for-hire scheme against a Kremlin critic thought to be residing in Washington, DC.
Federal prosecutors, in court papers made public Tuesday, said the alleged plot was tied to a wider international network accused of recruiting individuals to conduct assassinations and terrorist attacks for Moscow.
The five men charged with incitement are alleged to have worked for Russian intelligence services. Prosecutors say they paid, or tried to pay, people in the US and other countries to monitor and kill Russian dissidents.
Three of the accused also face charges of conspiracy to commit murder for hire. The Justice Department said all five suspects remain at large.
Prosecutors say the alleged Russian intelligence operation extended to the Washington area in late August. A Venezuelan citizen living in the US was allegedly instructed to covertly record two locations connected to the Kremlin critic, before being offered $40,000 to carry out the killing.
The individual carried out the requested surveillance but ultimately declined to commit the murder, according to the indictment.
Authorities allege that all five defendants were linked to a Russian intelligence-directed network that funded terrorism and organized violent missions in countries around the world.
The alleged recruiter provided detailed instructions for the reconnaissance, prosecutors said. The operative was reportedly told to switch his phone to airplane mode, start filming before reaching the neighborhood, drive slowly past the target’s home and erase the messages once finished.
The charging documents allege that coded terms were used throughout the operation, with the planned assassination described as “construction” and the surveillance mission characterized as “measuring a plot of land.”
After the US-based recruit refused to carry out the alleged assassination, the network reportedly looked for other potential recruits in the United States, while claiming it also had “people in Mexico” who could be used for the job.
In addition to the alleged murder plot in Washington, the indictment accuses members of the network of supporting attacks on civilian and military infrastructure in Europe and carrying out surveillance of Russian dissidents abroad.
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The case marks one of the most serious publicly alleged Russian intelligence operations targeting an individual inside the US in recent years.
The indictment names five alleged members of what prosecutors call the Russian Intelligence Services Network (RIS). They are Yuri Khrameev, a former Russian intelligence colonel known as “Colonel Yuri”; his son, Kirill Khrameev, an officer in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB); Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, a Cuban national living in Russia whom prosecutors describe as coordinating attacks for the network; Yaidel Delgado Suarez, known as “Viking,” and Angel Eduardo Castro.
Russia has repeatedly been accused by Western governments of targeting political opponents and defectors abroad.
Among the highest-profile cases was the 2018 poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok.
British authorities blamed Russian military intelligence for the attack, an allegation Moscow denied.
US officials have also accused Russia of orchestrating killings of Kremlin critics overseas and conducting covert influence and espionage operations inside the United States, though prosecutors say the alleged Washington murder plot represents a rare instance in which Russian operatives sought to recruit someone on US soil to carry out an assassination.
Prosecutors say the alleged Washington murder plot was part of a much broader Russian intelligence campaign that has operated since at least 2024.
According to the indictment, the same network recruited a US citizen in Lithuania to surveil another Kremlin critic before allegedly offering about $25,000 to kill him.
After that recruit refused, prosecutors say the network shifted to soliciting sabotage attacks against infrastructure in countries supporting Ukraine, including alleged plots targeting electrical substations , warehouses and transportation hubs.
The indictment comes as Western governments have warned that Russia has expanded its use of covert operations, sabotage and assassination plots beyond the battlefield since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
US prosecutors allege the network shifted its focus from targeting Russian dissidents and defectors to attacking countries “aligned, or perceived to be aligned, with Ukraine.”