Allegations surface as US-Russia intelligence contacts deepen
The Department of Justice accused Russia on Tuesday of plotting to murder Ukrainian allies in the United States and Europe, announcing charges against five men it said were tied to Russian intelligence services and who allegedly paid or tried to pay people to carry out attacks.
The DoJ statement named the defendants as Yuri Khrameev, 63; his son Kirill Khrameev, 27; Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, 35; Yaidel Delgado Suarez, 35; and Angel Eduardo Castro, 22. All five remain at large, and the DoJ filing did not indicate whether any of the accused are in the United States.
All five defendants are charged with participating in a conspiracy to finance terrorism, an offense that carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. Khrameev senior, Suarez and Castro are additionally charged with participating in a conspiracy to commit murder for hire, which carries a maximum 10-year sentence.
Three of the defendants — Yuri Khrameev, Kirill Khrameev and Romagoza Durruthy — are described in the DoJ statement as “high-ranking members of the RIS network.” Khrameev senior was identified as a colonel in the Russian intelligence services; his son is an officer in the Federal Security Service of Russia. Romagoza Durruthy, a Cuban national, was described as “an influential member of the Cuban diaspora living in Russia who has coordinated attacks for the RIS network.”
The other two defendants, Suarez and Castro, are accused of recruiting or attempting to recruit US-based individuals to “surveil and attempt to murder a prominent US-based Russian dissident.” According to the DoJ, Suarez sent the recruit to two locations linked to the victim with “explicit instructions on how to conduct surveillance,” offering between $1,000 and $1,500. Suarez and Castro allegedly offered an additional $40,000 if the recruit could “eliminate” the dissident.
The recruit did not carry out the killing, the DoJ said, after which Suarez allegedly tried to recruit “multiple other individuals within the United States” and offered “substantial sums of money to carry out the targeting of US based victims.”
The DoJ release also described a separate alleged plot targeting Lithuania. In 2025, the statement said, Kirill Khrameev recruited a US citizen to surveil and murder someone in Lithuania who was, in the quoted account attributed to Khrameev, “telling lies about Russia.” The release quotes Khrameev as saying the purpose was to target “all the countries that are helping Ukraine.” His father, the DoJ said, offered the recruit $25,000 to kill the individual for “spreading dirt about my country” and “distorting history.”
FBI official James Barnacle said the group “conspired to intimidate, threaten, or murder people on US soil and around the world.” Attorney General Todd Blanche, in the DoJ statement, said, “It is our job to stop America’s adversaries from unleashing violence and terror on American soil.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that Moscow would not comment until it hears or sees “any credible evidence” or “tangible facts.”
The new charges follow earlier alleged Russian-backed murder plots that authorities said they had thwarted abroad. Last month, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said authorities had detained an individual allegedly working for the Kremlin who was plotting to murder an American-Ukrainian citizen in Warsaw. Tusk said the citizen “was uncomfortable for the Putin regime,” adding: “We have to accept the assumption that the Putin regime will try to eliminate people who are inconvenient for various reasons.”
In 2024, German authorities were reportedly warned by US intelligence of a Russian plot to kill Armin Papperger, the head of Germany’s largest arms company, Rheinmetall. Moscow dismissed the accusation at the time, with Peskov saying: “It’s all presented in the style of another fake story, so such reports cannot be taken seriously.”
The fresh accusations come at a time of closer relations between Moscow and Washington following Trump’s return to the White House in 2025. A few weeks ago, CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow for talks with figures from Russia’s intelligence services — an unconventional move that prompted public speculation. The Kremlin confirmed that the talks had taken place. Trump did not say what was discussed but described the meeting as “semi-routine.”