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US Accuses Russia of Plot to Kill Dissident in DC

7 sources · updated 2026-09-18
Left 50% Center 0% Right 50%
2 left · 0 center · 2 right

What happened

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a Manhattan federal indictment charging five people believed to live in Russia — former Russian intelligence colonel Yuri Khrameev, 63; his son Kirill Khrameev, 27, an officer in Russia’s Federal Security Service; Cuban nationals Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, 35, and Yaidel Delgado Suarez, 35; and Venezuelan national Angel Eduardo Castro, 22 — with conspiracy to finance terrorism; Khrameev senior, Suarez, and Castro also face conspiracy to commit murder for hire. All five remain at large. Prosecutors allege that since at least 2024 a Russian intelligence network paid or tried to pay people in the United States and abroad to surveil and kill Russian dissidents and to attack civilian and military infrastructure in European countries perceived as aligned with Ukraine: this summer a Brooklyn resident was paid $1,000–$1,500 to photograph two locations tied to a prominent Russian dissident believed to be in the Washington, D.C., area, then offered $40,000 to kill the target and declined; a U.S. citizen was allegedly paid $200 to photograph a target in Lithuania and offered about $25,000 to kill him, after which Yuri Khrameev allegedly proposed attacking a warehouse or electrical substation to target “all the countries that are helping Ukraine”; and Durruthy is accused of coordinating logistics for 2024 attacks in Prague and Lithuania. The FBI said it disrupted the plots. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would not comment until it saw “credible evidence” or “tangible facts.”
Sourcing check · Mostly on the record · 4 articles

3 of 4 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report. Dmitry Peskov denied part of it on the record.

What these terms mean and how they're counted
On the record · names a source 3 of 4
On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: US Department of Justice, Attorney General Todd Blanche, James Barnacle, James C. Barnacle Jr., Darren B. Cox and Jamie McDonald
Primary evidence · cites a document or data 4 of 4
Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: indictment, court filing
Credits another outlet 0 of 4
The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
Unnamed sources 0 of 4
The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
On-record denial 1
A named person or institution says the claim, or part of it, is not true. It is on the record — someone signed their name to it — but it is not confirmation, so it never counts toward On the record. Criticizing or dissenting from a decision is not a denial. The count is how many people or institutions deny it; each is listed with the first article that carried the denial. Here: Dmitry Peskov (BBC, Sep 16, 12:26 UTC)
How it developed
When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Sep 16, 11:30 UTC by NBC News, naming its source. First document in the first report, from NBC News (indictment).
Not counted 0
Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out

Unpacked

Left-leaning coverage connects the charged network to a prior European sabotage case that right-leaning coverage never names. One of the men charged had already been publicly wanted in Lithuania for trying to burn military equipment meant for Ukraine, according to NBC News. Right-leaning outlets mention infrastructure plots in Europe only in general terms, so a reader can take the failed Washington recruitment as the story rather than one arm of a group already flagged abroad. Left-leaning coverage leads with Ukraine's partners; right-leaning coverage leads with a hit in the capital. Headlines in the Guardian described a plot to kill "Ukraine allies" in the United States, while the New York Post described a murder plot in Washington. None of the coverage explains how the FBI disrupted the plot when every defendant is still at large.
Bottom line

NBC News reported that a defendant in the US murder case was already wanted in Lithuania over a plot to burn equipment headed to Ukraine; that warrant never appears in the New York Post.

The receipts — 5 facts one side's coverage lacks
  • Lithuanian authorities had publicly named Oemis Romagoza Durruthy as wanted in January for attempts to burn military equipment intended for Ukraine individual casein NBC News · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would not comment without credible evidence official statementin NBC News, BBC · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow for talks with Russian intelligence services contextin BBC, CBS News · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • Conspiracy to finance terrorism carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence numberin BBC · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • US Attorney Jamie McDonald said the defendants conspired to cause destruction and mayhem around the world, including in the United States official statementin New York Post · absent from left-leaning coverage
The Left View
Left-leaning outlets framed the case as a Kremlin “global assassination network” that has moved from hunting dissidents to striking nations “aligned, or perceived to be aligned, with Ukraine,” giving weight to the Lithuania recruitment’s alleged purpose and to Durruthy’s purported logistics role in the 2024 European attacks. They quoted Justice Department and FBI officials calling the operation “brazen, aggressive, and far-reaching” and “a gross violation of our sovereignty and a threat to our national security.” The BBC noted that the charges landed amid closer Moscow–Washington ties after President Donald Trump’s 2025 return to office and a recent visit to Moscow by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and it tied the indictment to a longer pattern of alleged Russian plots abroad, including the 2018 Novichok attack on Sergei Skripal in Salisbury and later warnings in Poland and Germany. Peskov’s insistence on “tangible facts” was reported against that record of Russian denials.
The Right View
Right-leaning outlets led with a foiled murder-for-hire plot in the nation’s capital, stressing that Russian intelligence operatives had recruited someone on U.S. soil to film Washington-area locations and offered tens of thousands of dollars to “eliminate” a Kremlin critic. They highlighted indictment tradecraft — coded references to murder as “construction,” instructions to put a phone in airplane mode, and a claim of “people in Mexico” available for the killing — and the New York Post called the case one of the most serious publicly alleged Russian intelligence operations targeting an individual inside the United States in recent years. Coverage also invoked the 2018 Skripal poisoning as precedent. These sources treated the story as a DOJ and FBI disruption of Russian spies reaching into America and did not discuss the recent U.S.–Russia diplomatic contacts.
Our Take (balanced)
The left’s strongest argument is that the indictment’s own language and the European attack-logistics allegations show a campaign aimed at Ukraine’s backers, not only at one dissident in Washington — the best evidence being Khrameev’s alleged remark about targeting “all the countries that are helping Ukraine” and the shift from a refused killing to sabotage of infrastructure. The right’s strongest argument is that the concrete, disrupted act on U.S. territory was a paid attempt to murder someone in the capital after surveillance of specific locations, making the story first a sovereignty and law-enforcement event; the $40,000 offer and the Brooklyn recruit’s refusal, followed by further U.S. recruiting, are the clearest supporting facts. The central unresolved tension is whether the charges should be weighed mainly as proof of an ongoing Russian campaign against Ukraine’s allies — a frame that left-leaning coverage sets against a U.S.–Russia thaw, which right-leaning coverage omits — or mainly as a successful halt to an assassination plot on American soil.

7 sources

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