Russian intelligence plans targeted killings in US and Europe, US Justice Department says

Russian intelligence services are planning targeted assassinations in the United States and European countries that support Ukraine. This was stated by the US Department of Justice, announcing the indictment of five people currently on the run.

According to the indictment, a network of Russian intelligence services paid or attempted to pay individuals in the US and other countries to monitor and carry out targeted assassinations, "as well as instructed accomplices to carry out or attempt acts of terrorism against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries aligned with Ukraine."

“Since at least 2024, a network of individuals operating for Russia's intelligence services has conspired to carry out, and has carried out, attacks and assassinations throughout the world, including in the United States,” the US Department of Justice says, referring to the RIS Network, the arm responsible for carrying out attacks abroad, “focusing on Russian dissidents and defectors and, more recently, on nations perceived to be allies of Ukraine.

Recently members of the RIS Network attempted to recruit several individuals in the United States to carry out surveillance and assassination activities in the country." Three of the defendants are high-level members of the Ris Network: Yuri Kharameev, Kirill Khrameev and Oemis Romagoz Durruthy. The other two members included in the indictment are Yaidel Delgado Suarez and Eduardo Castro, who worked together to recruit US residents to surveil and attempt to kill a prominent US-based Russian dissident.

“The defendants allegedly operated as part of a global assassination ring that extended into the United States,” said Deputy Attorney General John A. Eisenberg. "We will reject any attempt by foreign intelligence services to operate freely in our country," he stressed.