Federal prosecutors have charged five suspected Russian intelligence operatives with conspiracy to finance terrorism and plotting to murder Kremlin critics inside the United States and across Europe, and all five remain at large.
The Justice Department unsealed the indictment in federal court in Manhattan, laying out what prosecutors described as a sprawling network that recruited people on American soil to surveil and kill Russian dissidents, used coded language to mask assassination plans, and funneled cryptocurrency to operatives staging attacks in NATO countries. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charges from the White House Rose Garden.
The case lands as one of the most serious publicly alleged Russian intelligence operations targeting individuals inside the United States in years, and it exposes, in granular detail, how Moscow's spy apparatus allegedly tried to turn residents of Brooklyn into hired killers.
The indictment names five defendants: Yuri Khrameev, a former colonel in Russian intelligence; his son Kirill Khrameev, a suspected officer in Russia's FSB security service; two Cuban nationals living in Russia, Oemis Romagoza Durruthy and Yaidel Delgado Suarez; and Angel Eduardo Castro, a Venezuelan national also living in Russia. All five face charges of conspiracy to finance terrorism. Three, Yuri Khrameev, Suarez, and Castro, face an additional count of murder-for-hire conspiracy.
Between July and August 2026, the network allegedly recruited a Venezuelan citizen living in Brooklyn, identified in court papers only as "U.S. Resident 1," to surveil and murder an unnamed Russian dissident in the United States. Suarez and Castro allegedly contacted the recruit through encrypted messaging apps, providing two addresses tied to the target and instructions for photographing and filming the locations.
Suarez allegedly told the recruit that the addresses belonged to someone they "want to eliminate they want to disappear," and offered "$40,000 'for whoever does the work.'" When asking whether the recruit knew anyone willing to carry out the killing, Suarez used what prosecutors say was coded language, asking if he knew "someone who wants to do construction." Prosecutors allege "construction" meant murder.
The Brooklyn recruit agreed to take photographs and video but refused to commit the murder itself. Suarez allegedly told the recruit he was under pressure from his boss and said he had a team in Mexico that could do it, but they were not immediately available. The indictment does not name Suarez's boss.
Fox News reported that the recruit completed the surveillance tasks before declining to carry out the killing, and that prosecutors described the network as part of a broader Russian Intelligence Services apparatus that had shifted its focus from targeting individual dissidents and defectors to attacking countries "aligned, or perceived to be aligned, with Ukraine."
A separate plot unfolded in Europe. In late June 2025, Kirill Khrameev allegedly met an unnamed U.S. citizen at the Estonia-Russia border and offered to pay the American to photograph an address in Vilnius, Lithuania, the home of an unnamed Kremlin critic. That meeting opened a channel between the American and Yuri Khrameev, the elder operative.
Yuri Khrameev allegedly communicated with the American through an encrypted messaging app, instructing him to send photos and videos of the target's residence every two to three days. He then offered $25,000 for the murder itself, proposing methods that included "throwing a bottle of gasoline" or "sticking a knife." When the American declined, fearing he would easily be caught, Khrameev allegedly offered a "simpler job": setting fire to a warehouse or an electrical substation.
Khrameev allegedly explained why the Vilnius target had been marked. The individual, he said, was being targeted for "spreading dirt" about Russia and "telling the media and the common people that the Russians are the aggressors." He did not disguise his broader ambitions. NPR reported that Khrameev told the American he was "interested in all the countries that are helping Ukraine," adding that he wanted to target "military facilities and dual-use facilities... located in the countries of the NATO military bloc."
His pitch was blunt:
"I'm offering serious money for serious work."
Durruthy, the Cuban national, allegedly played a logistical role in operations aimed at European targets. He transferred more than $1,000 in cryptocurrency to a "criminal associate" and booked hotels in the Czech Republic and Poland for that associate. The indictment includes a photograph pulled from an online account linked to Durruthy that prosecutors say appears to show potential attack sites in the Polish capital, Warsaw.
The indictment describes the five-man network as "one arm of the Russian Federation's apparatus used to carry out external attacks, including murder, around the world." Prosecutors say the network conducted operations against both civilian and military targets in European countries allied with Ukraine. The alleged activity dates back to 2024, two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic have all accused Russia of conducting sabotage attacks on their soil in recent years. The Washington Examiner reported that the five agents have been operating since 2024, targeting defectors and Ukrainian allies through surveillance and murder-for-hire operations that extended inside the United States.
Attorney General Blanche framed the charges as proof that the administration is actively countering foreign threats on American soil. Speaking from the Rose Garden, he said:
"It is our job to stop America's adversaries from unleashing violence and terror on American soil. And that's precisely what we are doing thanks to the work of the FBI and our Justice Department prosecutors."
All five defendants remain at large. The indictment does not describe any arrests, and prosecutors have not publicly detailed extradition or apprehension efforts. The identities of the two targeted dissidents, one in Brooklyn, one in Vilnius, remain sealed in court papers, as do the identities of the two Americans the network allegedly tried to recruit.
Several questions remain unanswered. The indictment does not specify which Russian intelligence service Yuri Khrameev served as a colonel, nor does it identify the "boss" Suarez allegedly referenced when pressuring the Brooklyn recruit. Whether the full indictment contains additional plots beyond those publicly described is unclear.
When a foreign government allegedly offers bounties to kill dissidents on American streets and recruit American residents to do it, the charges are the easy part. Catching the operatives, all five of whom sit safely in Russia, is where accountability actually begins.
