The Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI Director Kash Patel announced that they had disrupted a plot to carry out targeted killings in the U.S. and Europe.
The intelligence services of the Russian Federation are plotting to carry out targeted killings in the U.S. and in European nations supporting Ukraine, federal authorities said Tuesday in announcing they'd thwarted a plot to kill a prominent Russian dissident believed to be living in Washington, D.C.
Five people assumed to be living abroad were charged in the plot, according to an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court. It said a network of the Russian intelligence services has paid and tried to pay individuals in the United States and in other countries since 2024 to surveil and then kill Russian dissidents.
The associates recruited by the network also have been solicited to carry out acts of terrorism against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries that are perceived to be aligned with Ukraine, the indictment said.
RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE ALLEGEDLY PLOTTED TO MURDER A DISSIDENT ON U.S. SOIL.
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) September 16, 2026
Foreign governments will not be allowed to silence critics, violate our laws, or threaten the freedoms of people in America.
The FBI will defend free speech and confront transnational repression wherever… pic.twitter.com/dbDrjfv4hH
Patel said:
Foreign governments will not be allowed to silence critics, violate our laws, or threaten the freedoms of people in America. The FBI will defend free speech and confront transnational repression wherever it threatens our homeland.
Among the people charged were people allegedly connected to Russian intelligence.
Among those charged in the indictment were three high-ranking members of the Russian intelligence services, authorities said. They were identified as Yuri Khrameev, a former colonel in the Russian intelligence services; his son, Kirill Khrameev, an officer in the Federal Security Service of Russia; and Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, a Cuban national and an influential member of the Cuban diaspora living in Russia.
They allegedly tried to recruit a man to surveil and murder a prominent Russian dissident they believed to be residing in Washington, D.C., but were ultimately turned down.
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