DOJ charges Russians for allegedly financing terrorism, murder-for-hire plots

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Tuesday that an indictment has been unsealed in the Southern District of New York charging multiple Russian citizens he said worked for the country’s intelligence community for allegedly financing terrorism and conspiring to commit murder plots around the world. 

The indictment, Blanche said, includes alleged efforts by the group to murder a Russian dissident whom they believed was located in the Washington, D.C. area. 

Blanche made the announcement at a White House Rose Garden press conference.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said Tuesday that the network of individuals, which the indictment said were “working for the intelligence services of the Russian federation (the ‘RIS Network’),” allegedly worked since 2024 to track down and surveil Russian dissidents residing in the United States and Europe and also coordinated terrorist attacks against military and civilian infrastructure in European countries aligned with Ukraine.

The indictment names three alleged “high-ranking” members of the network as well as two alleged recruiters for the group. According to the charges, the network also allegedly attempted to recruit individuals within the U.S. to carry out the terrorist attacks in Europe. 

The alleged “high-ranking” individuals named in the indictment are Yuri Khrameev, aka “Colonel Yuri,” identified in the indictment as a former colonel in the Russian intelligence services; Kirill Khrameev, an officer in Russia’s Federal Security Service and Yuri Khrameev’s son; and Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, whom the indictment said is a Cuban national living in Russia who allegedly coordinated attacks for the group.

The indictment also alleges two other defendants — Yaidel Delgado Suarez, aka “Viking,” and Angel Eduardo Castro — served in part as recruiters for the RIS Network.

The RIS Network is specifically alleged to have recruited a Venezuelan citizen living in the U.S. in the summer of 2026 to surveil and murder a prominent Russian dissident that they believed was working in Washington, D.C.

The charges include communications between the group on encrypted messaging applications where they discussed the murder-for-hire plot, with specific instructions on how their recruits could conduct surveillance, and arrangements for payments. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.