The Kremlin orchestrated a murder-for-hire plot against a prominent Russian dissident in Washington, D.C., this summer, the Department of Justice has said, as it unsealed charges against five people it alleged were part of a “global assassination network” aimed at causing “destruction and mayhem around the world.”
The five people charged are still at large, the DOJ said in the indictment unsealed late Tuesday, describing the wider operation being run by Russian intelligence as “brazen, aggressive, and far-reaching.”
The FBI said it had disrupted the plot, although officials did not detail how.
Since at least 2024, the network is alleged to have paid Americans and foreigners to spy on targets, “carry out targeted killings,” and “commit acts of terrorism against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries that are aligned, or perceived to be aligned, with Ukraine,” the DOJ said.
Asked for a response to the allegations by NBC News, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a daily briefing call with reporters that “until we have heard or seen any reasonable evidence and arguments based on at least something tangible, we do not consider it necessary to comment on this news.”
Russia has for decades been accused by Western governments of carrying out attempted and successful killings abroad. Despite substantial evidence, it has always denied these allegations.
The indictment did not name the intended victim in Washington. The DOJ lists the defendants as Yuri Khrameev, known as “Colonel Yuri,” 63, and his son Kirill Khrameev, 27, both of Russia; Oemis Romagoza Durruthy and Yaidel Delgado Suarez, known as “Viking,” both 35 and Cuban nationals; and Angel Eduardo Castro, 22, of Venezuela.
The indictment describes Durruthy as “an influential member of the Cuban diaspora living in Russia,” where it says Suarez and Castro also reside.
All face a conspiracy to finance terrorism charge. Yuri Khrameev, Suarez and Castro face an additional charge of conspiracy to commit murder for hire.
Yuri Khrameev is alleged to be a former Russian intelligence colonel, while his son is an officer in Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB.
Prosecutors allege the network recruited a Venezuelan citizen living in Brooklyn this summer, promising him between $1,000 and $1,500 to photograph and film two locations associated with the Washington target.
The man carried out the surveillance but declined an offer from Suarez and Castro of $40,000 to “eliminate” or “disappear” the target himself, prosecutors said. The alleged recruiters asked whether he knew somebody who would.
Suarez also offered substantial sums of money to other people in the U.S. to finish the job, the indictment said.
Messages quoted in the indictment show the conspirators allegedly referring to murder as “construction.” Surveillance instructions included putting the man’s phone into airplane mode and filming while passing the house.
Suarez allegedly said he also had people in Mexico who could carry out the killing, but they were delayed.
A second alleged plot involved a dissident believed to be living in Lithuania who the network accused of making derogatory statements about Russia.
In that case, a U.S. citizen was promised $200 to photograph the target’s address in 2025, then offered around $25,000 to kill him, prosecutors said. When he refused, Yuri Khrameev allegedly offered a “simpler job” — setting fire to a warehouse or attacking an electricity substation.
The purpose, Khrameev allegedly said, was to target “all the countries that are helping Ukraine.”
Durruthy, meanwhile, is accused of coordinating logistics for attacks in Prague in June 2024 and Lithuania that September.
Lithuanian authorities had publicly named Durruthy as wanted in January in a case involving attempts to burn military equipment intended for Ukraine, according to Lithuanian broadcaster LRT.
“These 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,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg.
“Actions like these represent a gross violation of our sovereignty and a threat to our national security.”
James C. Barnacle Jr., head of New York’s FBI office, said the agency “disrupted this operation through relentless work and rock-solid partnership.”
