The Russian intelligence services are reportedly planning to carry out targeted killings in the United States and European countries that support Ukraine. This was stated by U.S. federal authorities, announcing that they had foiled a plot to kill a well-known Russian dissident believed to live in Washington. According to an indictment made public at the federal court in Manhattan, five people believed to live abroad have been indicted.
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The document states that, since 2024, a network linked to the Russian intelligence services has paid, or attempted to pay, people in the United States and other countries to surveil and then kill Russian dissidents. According to the indictment, the people recruited by the network were also asked to carry out acts of terrorism against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries considered aligned with Ukraine. James C. Barnacle Jr., head of the FBI office in New York, said the agency foiled the plans “through relentless work,” while intelligence service members and their affiliates “conspired to intimidate, threaten, or kill people on U.S. soil and worldwide.”
Secret network active since 2024
According to the statement, a network of people working for the Russian Federation intelligence services conspired, at least since 2024, to carry out, and actually carried out, attacks and killings worldwide, including in the United States. Previously, the network focused on Russian dissidents and defectors, but after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it also targeted countries considered allies of Ukraine. Recently, members of the network reportedly tried to recruit several people in the United States.
Among the indicted, authorities reported, are three high-ranking members of the Russian intelligence services. They are Yuri Khrameev, a former colonel of the services, his son Kirill Khrameev, an agent of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), and Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, a Cuban citizen and influential member of the Cuban diaspora residing in Russia. According to the indictment, Yuri Khrameev and two other indicted individuals, Yaidel Delgado Suarez and Angel Eduardo Castro, both residing in Russia, recruited a Venezuelan citizen living in Brooklyn to surveil and kill a well-known Russian dissident believed to reside in Washington.
The Brooklyn resident was sent to two locations associated with the designated victim and received “explicit instructions on how to conduct surveillance,” with the promise of one thousand to 1,500 dollars to complete the task. After conducting surveillance and providing numerous photos and videos of locations associated with the designated victim, the U.S. resident refused the 40,000 dollars offered to “eliminate” or “make disappear” the victim. After the offer was refused, the intelligence service member who made the proposal then offered large sums of money to several other people in the United States to complete the task.
