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US says Russian spy network plotted killings in America and Europe
US federal authorities have charged five suspects in an alleged Russian intelligence plot to surveil and kill targets in America and Europe. Investigators say the disrupted operation marks an escalation from targeting dissidents to threatening countries backing Ukraine.
US federal authorities on Tuesday said Russia's intelligence services were plotting targeted killings in the United States and in European countries that support Ukraine, as charges were announced against five people who remain at large.
An indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court said the network paid and tried to pay individuals in the US and other countries to carry out surveillance on intended targets, with plans to later kill them. It also said the network's associates were solicited to carry out acts of terrorism against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries seen as aligned with Ukraine.
James C. Barnacle, Jr., head of 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, head of the FBI's Washington, D.C., office, said there had been "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 in a release that when the threat was first identified, the FBI's Washington field office and its partners "moved quickly to disrupt the plot and hold the Russian government accountable for its actions." According to the release, people working for the Russian Federation's intelligence services had, since at least 2024, conspired to conduct and had conducted attacks and murders around the world, including within the United States.
The release described the intelligence services network as "one arm" of the Russian Federation's apparatus meant to carry out external attacks, including murder, around the world. It said the network had earlier focused on Russian dissidents and defectors, but had more recently targeted nations perceived to be allies of Ukraine. It also said members of the network had recently tried to recruit multiple people in the United States.
Authorities said the network this summer recruited a US-based individual to surveil and murder a prominent Russian dissident believed to be living in the country. The indictment said a person identified only as "U.S. Resident-1" was sent to two locations linked to the intended victim and was given "explicit instructions on how to conduct surveillance" while being promised USD 1,000 and USD 1,500 for the work.
After carrying out the surveillance and providing multiple photographs and videos of locations linked to the intended victim to one of the men charged in the indictment, the US resident rejected an offer of USD 40,000 to "eliminate" or "disappear" the target through murder. The indictment said that after the offer was turned down, the intelligence services member who made it tried to recruit multiple other people within the United States to complete the killing by offering them substantial sums of money.
The case, as outlined by federal authorities and the indictment, centres on an alleged Russian intelligence network accused of planning killings and seeking recruits in the US and Europe, with investigators saying the plot was disrupted before the murder plan could be carried out.
