Overview
- The Department of Justice unsealed a Manhattan indictment on Tuesday charging five people accused of working for a Russian intelligence-linked network that recruited operatives to carry out killings and attacks.
- Prosecutors named the defendants as Yuri Khrameev, his son Kirill Khrameev, Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, Yaidel Delgado Suarez, and Angel Eduardo Castro and charged all five with conspiracy to finance terrorism.
- Three defendants—Yuri Khrameev, Yaidel Delgado Suarez, and Angel Eduardo Castro—also face conspiracy-to-commit-murder-for-hire counts tied to a plot to kill a Russian dissident believed to be in the Washington area.
- Federal officials say the FBI disrupted a summer recruitment effort in which U.S.-based operatives were paid to surveil a dissident and were later offered $40,000 to "eliminate" the target, but the recruited U.S. resident refused and was not charged.
- Authorities say the RIS Network has operated since at least 2024 and shifted after 2022 toward targeting countries seen as supporting Ukraine, including alleged attempted attacks in Prague and Lithuania, and the five accused remain at large as investigations continue.