U.S. prosecutors unsealed charges against five men they say belong to a Russian intelligence-directed network that offered $40,000 to have a Kremlin critic killed in the nation's capital, and all five defendants remain at large.
The federal indictment, made public Tuesday, names a former Russian intelligence colonel, his son, an officer in Russia's Federal Security Service, and three other alleged operatives in what the Justice Department describes as a sprawling assassination-and-sabotage campaign stretching across multiple countries. Three of the five face conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire charges. None have been arrested.
The case lays bare what Western governments have warned about for years: that Moscow's covert operations abroad have grown bolder and more violent since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This time, prosecutors say, the plot reached Washington, D.C.
The indictment, as Fox News reported, describes a network prosecutors call the Russian Intelligence Services Network, or RIS. Its alleged members recruited people inside the United States and in Europe to surveil and kill Kremlin critics living abroad.
In the Washington operation, the network allegedly directed a U.S.-based Venezuelan citizen to film two locations in the D.C. area tied to an unnamed Kremlin critic believed to be living in the capital. The recruit was walked through the surveillance step by step: keep the phone in airplane mode, record before entering the neighborhood, slow down near the target's home, delete messages afterward.
Then came the offer. Prosecutors say the network put a $40,000 price on the critic's life.
The recruit completed the surveillance. He refused to commit the murder.
Prosecutors say the conspirators used coded language throughout. An assassination was "construction." Surveillance was "measuring a plot of land." And when the Venezuelan recruit balked at the killing, the network noted it had "people in Mexico" available for the job.
Washington was not the only city in the crosshairs. The indictment alleges the same network recruited a U.S. citizen living in Lithuania to surveil another Kremlin critic there. That recruit was offered roughly $25,000 to carry out the killing.
He refused, too.
After both recruits declined to follow through on the murders, the network allegedly shifted its focus. Prosecutors say it moved from targeting individual Russian dissidents and defectors to soliciting sabotage attacks against civilian and military infrastructure in countries "aligned, or perceived to be aligned, with Ukraine." The alleged targets included electrical substations, warehouses, and transportation hubs across Europe.
The indictment names Yuri Khrameev, a former Russian intelligence colonel known as "Colonel Yuri," and his son Kirill Khrameev, an FSB officer. Also charged are Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, a Cuban national living in Russia whom prosecutors describe as coordinating attacks for the network; Yaidel Delgado Suarez, known as "Viking"; and Angel Eduardo Castro.
The Justice Department confirmed that all five remain at large. The indictment states the network has operated since at least 2024.
No details about active efforts to locate or apprehend the defendants appeared in the unsealed documents. The identities of both targeted Kremlin critics and both recruits remain under seal.
The charges land against a backdrop that makes them difficult to dismiss as isolated. In 2018, former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned in Salisbury, England, with Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent. British authorities blamed Russian military intelligence. Moscow denied involvement.
Western governments have repeatedly accused Russia of targeting political opponents and defectors abroad. Since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, those governments say Moscow has expanded its toolkit, moving beyond targeted assassinations into broader sabotage campaigns against infrastructure in nations supporting Kyiv.
The indictment unsealed this week fits that pattern precisely. What began as a murder-for-hire operation against individual dissidents allegedly evolved into a campaign of planned attacks on power grids and supply chains across allied nations.
Several gaps remain. The indictment does not identify the Kremlin critics who were targeted, the recruits who refused to kill, or the specific European countries where sabotage was allegedly planned. Whether the network's "people in Mexico" ever took action is not addressed. The specific charges facing the two defendants not named in the murder-for-hire conspiracy count remain unclear from available reporting.
And the most obvious question hangs over the entire case: with all five defendants at large and presumably beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement, what practical consequence follows from an indictment alone?
Federal prosecutors may view the public charges as a deterrent, a diplomatic tool, or a foundation for future extradition requests. But for the unnamed Kremlin critic still believed to be living in Washington, D.C., the threat described in these documents was not theoretical. Someone drove through his neighborhood, filmed his home, and was offered $40,000 to end his life.
When a foreign intelligence service can recruit operatives on American soil to stalk targets in the nation's capital, the question is not whether the government should respond, it is whether unsealing a piece of paper counts as one.
