Russia ‘plotting assassinations in US and European countries supporting Ukraine’

Russia is plotting to carry out targeted killings across the US and European countries supporting Ukraine, the FBI has warned.

Individuals are being recruited by Moscow’s intelligence services to conduct surveillance on and then kill Russian dissidents, according to a newly unsealed federal indictment.

They have also allegedly been paid to carry out acts of terrorism against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries perceived to be aligned with Ukraine.

James Barnacle Jr, head of New York’s FBI office, said agents had foiled a plot to kill a prominent Russian dissident believed to be living in Washington DC.

He said Russia’s federal security services (FSB) – the successor agency to the Soviet Union’s KGB – and their affiliates have ‘conspired to intimidate, threaten, or murder people on US soil and around the world’ since at least 2024.

The plots had previously tended to target dissidents and defectors, but the outbreak of the Ukraine war has allegedly seen them aimed more broadly at nations allied with Kyiv.

Last year, several arson attacks targeted homes and a car linked to former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.

The attackers, Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych and Ukrainian-born Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, were recruited by a Russian-speaking Telegram userpromising payment.

Months later, six men were jailed for their parts in a Russian-ordered arson attack on a London warehouse providing aid to Ukraine.

The ringleader, Dylan Earl, was recruited by the Wagner Group, mercenaries acting on behalf of the Russian state.

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, and Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, said to be an influential member of the Cuban diaspora living in Russia.

Yuri Khrameev and two others charged in the indictment — Yaidel Delgado Suarez and Angel Eduardo Castro — allegedly recruited a Venezuelan citizen living in Brooklyn to follow and murder a prominent Russian dissident they believed to be living in Washington DC.

The recruit was said to have been given two locations linked to the target along with ‘explicit instructions on how to conduct surveillance’ and up to $1,500 to carry out the work.

They handed over photos and videos of their reconnaissance but ultimately turned down a $40,000 bounty to ‘eliminate’ or ‘disappear’ the target, authorities said.

When the deal was rejected, the handler acting on behalf of the FSB allegedly offered it to several others in exchange for finishing the job.

Darren B Cox, head of the FBI’s Washington DC office, praised the ‘extraordinary work by multiple FBI field offices, components, and partner agencies’ saying they ‘moved quickly to disrupt the plot’.

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