Russia’s intelligence services are plotting to carry out targeted killings in the US and in European nations supporting Ukraine, the FBI has said. Five people assumed to be living abroad were charged in connection with the plot, according to an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court. The indictment stated that a network of Russian intelligence services had paid and attempted to pay individuals in the US and other countries to surveil and kill Russian agitators. The network’s affiliates have also been tasked with terrorist attacks targeting civilian and military infrastructure in European countries supporting Ukraine, according to the indictment. In a press release, Darren Cox, head of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, said the authorities had thwarted the plot through "extraordinary work by multiple FBI field offices." According to the release, the network had conspired to conduct and had conducted attacks and murders in the US and around the world since at least 2024. Among those charged in the indictment were three high-ranking members of the Russian intelligence services, according to the FBI. According to the indictment, three network members had recruited a Venezuelan citizen living in Brooklyn to surveil and murder a prominent Russian dissident in Washington DC Authorities say the civilian rejected a $40,000 offer to “eliminate” the target through murder, but had previously conducted surveillance of the intended victim.
