The DOJ Says a 63-Year-Old Former Russian Colonel and His FSB-Officer Son Ran a Global 'Assassination Network.' It Offered a Brooklyn Man $40,000 to Make a Dissident Near Washington 'Disappear.'

The Justice Department on Tuesday unsealed charges against five men it says worked for Russia's intelligence services to arrange surveillance, arson and targeted killings across Europe and inside the United States, including a plot this summer to murder a prominent Russian dissident believed to be living in the Washington, D.C., area. All five defendants remain at large and are thought to be in Russia.

The indictment, filed in the Southern District of New York, names Yuri Khrameev, 63, a former colonel in Russian intelligence whom recruits knew as "Colonel Yuri," and his son Kirill Khrameev, 27, whom prosecutors describe as an officer of the FSB, Russia's domestic security service. Charged alongside them are two Cuban nationals, Oemis Romagoza Durruthy and Yaidel Delgado Suarez, both 35, and a 22-year-old Venezuelan, Angel Eduardo Castro. All five face a count of conspiring to finance terrorism, which carries up to 20 years in prison. Yuri Khrameev, Suarez and Castro are additionally charged with conspiracy to commit murder for hire, which carries a maximum of 10 years.

According to the indictment, the U.S. plot unfolded between July and August 2026. Prosecutors say Suarez and Castro recruited a Brooklyn resident to conduct surveillance on the dissident, offering $1,000 to $1,500 for photographs and videos of the target's home, and then $40,000 to "eliminate" or "disappear" the person. The recruit agreed to the surveillance and handed over images, but refused the killing. At one point, prosecutors say, Suarez told the recruit that he had "people in Mexico" available to carry out the murder and pressed for an answer: "Let me know as soon as possible because I have a chain and my boss has questions." The indictment also says Durruthy had obtained media of the dissident's dwelling as early as November 2025.

The elder Khrameev is accused of running a parallel effort in Europe. In 2025, prosecutors say, he recruited an American citizen at the Estonia-Russia border, paying $200 to scout the address of a person living in Lithuania and then offering roughly $25,000 to kill that person, whom Khrameev complained was "telling lies about Russia," "spreading dirt about my country" and "distorting history." When the American declined, Khrameev allegedly proposed arson instead, offering $25,000 or more to burn warehouses or electrical substations in "countries helping Ukraine," and said he was interested in "serious money for serious work."

Prosecutors tie Durruthy to two attacks that had already been carried out. The indictment says he coordinated a failed arson attack on buses in Prague in June 2024, sending the participants the target locations and arranging their travel, and that he booked travel and kept in touch with the participants in a September 2024 arson attack on a Lithuanian facility that supplies radio equipment to Ukraine. Both incidents had previously been attributed by European authorities to Russian sabotage campaigns.

"It is our job to stop America's adversaries from unleashing violence and terror on American soil," Attorney General Todd Blanche said. John A. Eisenberg, the assistant attorney general for national security, called the case "a gross violation of our sovereignty" and said the defendants "allegedly operated as part of a global assassination network that reached into the United States." Jamie McDonald, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said the office "will not tolerate efforts to finance terrorist activities and engage in acts of violence, particularly when commissioned by state actors."

The investigation was led by the FBI's counterintelligence division in New York with the bureau's Washington field office and Homeland Security Investigations. "Any foreign intelligence service attempting to direct violence inside the United States will face an unrelenting response," said Darren B. Cox, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington office. Neither the Brooklyn recruit nor the American approached at the Estonian border has been charged or named. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would not comment on the case without "credible evidence," and the Russian Embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.