Overview
- The Justice Department unsealed an indictment on Wednesday charging five people accused of working for a Russia-linked network called Rete RIS that plotted murders and attacks in the United States and in European countries that support Ukraine.
- FBI agents say they disrupted recruitment in the summer of 2026 after a U.S.-based recruit completed surveillance but refused a $40,000 offer to carry out an assassination.
- Three defendants are described as senior operators — Yuri Khrameev, his son Kirill Khrameev, and Oemis Romagoza Durruthy — while Yaidel Delgado Suarez and Angel Eduardo Castro are accused of recruiting and coordinating plots; all five are at large and face federal counts that carry decades in prison if convicted.
- U.S. prosecutors say the network has operated since at least 2024 and shifted from targeting Russian dissidents and defectors to also planning strikes on people and infrastructure in countries seen as supporting Ukraine, citing alleged operations in Prague and Lithuania in 2024.
- The case raises diplomatic and security questions because it names alleged Russian intelligence operators, keeps active counterintelligence work underway, and could prompt further law enforcement cooperation, extradition requests, and protective measures for dissidents and critical sites.