Overview
- Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment on Tuesday that charges five people in an alleged Russian intelligence-linked network and says investigators disrupted a U.S.-based plot.
- The indictment says operatives recruited a U.S. resident this summer to photograph two locations associated with a dissident believed to live in the Washington, D.C., area and later offered $40,000 to have the target killed, an offer the recruit declined.
- The five defendants named are Yuri Khrameev, his son Kirill Khrameev, Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, Yaidel Delgado Suarez, and Angel Eduardo Castro, and all five face conspiracy-to-finance-terrorism counts.
- Prosecutors allege Yuri Khrameev, Yaidel Delgado Suarez, and Angel Castro also conspired to commit murder for hire and that the network has paid recruits $1,000–$1,500 for surveillance and larger sums for killings or sabotage.
- The indictment traces the group’s activity to at least 2024 with alleged plots in Prague and Lithuania, all five defendants remain at large, and prosecutors say the case highlights ongoing risks from extraterritorial operations tied to Russian intelligence.