The FBI thwarted a Russian plot to kill a prominent dissident in Washington, authorities say

NEW YORK (AP) — The intelligence services of the Russian Federation are plotting to carry out targeted killings in the U.S. and in European nations supporting Ukraine, federal authorities said Tuesday in announcing they’d thwarted a plot to kill a prominent Russian dissident believed to be living in Washington, D.C.

Five people assumed to be living abroad were charged in the plot, according to an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court. It said a network of the Russian intelligence services has paid and tried to pay individuals in the United States and in other countries since 2024 to surveil and then kill Russian dissidents.

The associates recruited by the network also have been solicited to carry out acts of terrorism against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries that are perceived to be aligned with Ukraine, the indictment said.

James C. Barnacle Jr., head of New York’s FBI office, said the agency disrupted the plans “through relentless work” as members of the intelligence services and their affiliates “conspired to intimidate, threaten, or murder people on U.S. soil and around the world.”

Darren B. Cox, head of the Washington, D.C., office of the FBI, in a release cited “extraordinary work by multiple FBI field offices, components, and partner agencies” and said they “moved quickly to disrupt the plot.”

According to the release, a network of people working for the Russian Federation’s intelligence services had since at least 2024 conspired to conduct and had conducted attacks and murders around the world, including within the United States.

Previously the network had focused on Russian dissidents and defectors but following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine had targeted nations perceived to be allies of Ukraine, the release said. Recently, members of the network have tried to recruit multiple people in the United States, it said.

U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said in the release that the Russian-led network said the people charged in the foiled plot “conspired to cause destruction and mayhem around the world, including right here in the United States.”

Among those charged in the indictment were three high-ranking members of the Russian intelligence services, authorities said. They were identified as Yuri Khrameev, a former colonel in the Russian intelligence services; his son, Kirill Khrameev, an officer in the Federal Security Service of Russia; and Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, a Cuban national and an influential member of the Cuban diaspora living in Russia.

The indictment said the Federal Security Service is Russia’s principal security agency and the successor agency to the former Soviet Union’s Committee for State Security, which was known as the KGB.

Yuri Khrameev and two others charged in the indictment — Yaidel Delgado Suarez and Angel Eduardo Castro, both living in Russia — recruited a Venezuelan citizen living in Brooklyn to surveil and murder a prominent Russian dissident they believed to be residing in Washington, D.C., the indictment said.

It said the Brooklyn resident was sent to two locations associated with the targeted victim and was given “explicit instructions on how to conduct surveillance” while being promised $1,000 and $1,500 to carry out the work.

After conducting the surveillance and providing multiple photographs and videos of locations associated with the intended victim, the U.S. resident turned down the $40,000 that was offered to “eliminate” or “disappear” the target through murder, authorities said.

When the offer was rejected, the member of the intelligence services who made it offered multiple other people within the United States substantial amounts of money to finish the job, the indictment said.