FBI Foils Russian Intelligence Plot for Targeted Killings, Indictment Says

Federal authorities announced charges on Tuesday against five people who remain at large, saying they are part of a Russian intelligence network that plotted targeted killings in the United States and in European nations supporting Ukraine.

An indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court said the network had paid, and attempted to pay, individuals in the United States and other countries to surveil targets who were to be killed. Recruits were also solicited to carry out acts of terrorism against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries perceived as aligned with Ukraine, the indictment said.

James C. Barnacle, Jr., who heads the FBI's New York office, said the bureau disrupted the plans through "relentless work" as members of the Russian intelligence services and their affiliates "conspired to intimidate, threaten, or murder people on U.S. soil and around the world."

Darren B. Cox, who leads the FBI's Washington, D.C., office, credited "extraordinary work by multiple FBI field offices, components, and partner agencies that collectively disrupted Russia's attempts to conduct violent acts in our nation's capital and throughout the United States." He said that once the threat was identified, his office and its partners "moved quickly to disrupt the plot and hold the Russian government accountable for its actions."

According to the release, the network had since at least 2024 conspired to conduct, and had conducted, attacks and murders around the world, including within the United States. It described the network as "one arm" of the Russian Federation's apparatus designed to carry out external attacks, including murder, globally. Previously, the release said, the network focused on Russian dissidents and defectors, but more recently it has targeted nations seen as allies of Ukraine. Members have recently tried to recruit multiple people in the United States, it said.

Authorities said the network this summer recruited an individual based in the United States to surveil and murder a prominent Russian dissident believed to be residing in the country. The indictment said a person identified only as "U.S. Resident-1" was sent to two locations associated with the intended victim and given "explicit instructions on how to conduct surveillance" while being promised $1,000 and $1,500 for the work.

After conducting the surveillance and providing multiple photographs and videos of locations linked to the intended victim to one of the men charged, the US resident turned down $40,000 that was offered to "eliminate" or "disappear" the target through murder. When the offer was rejected, the member of the intelligence services who made it tried to recruit multiple other people within the United States to finish the job by offering them substantial amounts of money, the indictment said.