US charges five people in alleged Russian assassination and sabotage network

The US Department of Justice has charged five individuals, including a former Russian intelligence colonel and an FSB officer, for operating a global Russian assassination and sabotage network. Active since at least 2024, the network allegedly recruited US residents to surveil and murder Russian dissidents in Washington, D.C. and Lithuania, and plotted terror attacks on infrastructure in European nations supporting Ukraine. All five suspects remain at large after the FBI disrupted the plots.

Russian intelligence assassination network

• ▪The United States Department of Justice unsealed an indictment on September 15, 2026, charging five individuals accused of operating a global assassination and sabotage network on behalf of Russian intelligence services
• ▪An alleged Russian intelligence network involving Yuri Khrameev, charged by the US Department of Justice in an indictment unsealed on September 15, has operated since at least 2024, conducting attacks and murders globally, with a recent focus on targeting nations perceived as allies of Ukraine

Five charged defendants

• ▪All five defendants face charges of conspiracy to finance terrorism, while Yuri Khrameev, Yaidel Delgado Suarez, and Angel Eduardo Castro also face charges of conspiracy to commit murder for hire
• ▪All five defendants charged in connection with the Russian intelligence network named in the US Justice Department's indictment unsealed on September 15 remain at large
• ▪The five defendants charged by the US Justice Department in an indictment unsealed on September 15 are former Russian intelligence colonel Yuri Khrameev, Russian Federal Security Service officer Kirill Khrameev, Cuban national Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, Cuban national Yaidel Delgado Suarez, and Venezuelan national Angel Eduardo Castro

Targeted Russian dissidents

• ▪The Russian intelligence network named in the US Justice Department's indictment unsealed on September 15 targeted a prominent Russian dissident believed by investigators to be residing in the Washington, D.C. area during the summer of 2026
• ▪Yuri Khrameev and Kirill Khrameev allegedly attempted to recruit a United States citizen in 2025 to kill an individual in Lithuania who was accused of telling lies about Russia

European infrastructure terrorism plots

• ▪Oemis Romagoza Durruthy is accused of coordinating attacks in Czechia and Lithuania on behalf of the Russian intelligence network in 2024
• ▪The Russian intelligence network named in the US Justice Department's indictment unsealed on September 15 solicited associates to carry out acts of terrorism against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries perceived to be aligned with Ukraine
• ▪After the United States citizen recruited in 2025 to kill an individual in Lithuania declined the murder plot, Yuri Khrameev offered a simpler job that included setting fire to a warehouse or attacking an electrical substation to target countries helping Ukraine

Debatable claims

• ▪Western governments should increase security protections for exiled Russian dissidents
• ▪US counterintelligence is successfully deterring Russian covert operations on American soil