On September 15, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed charges against five members of what prosecutors call a Russian Intelligence Services (RIS) network. They are accused of conspiring to finance terrorism and, in three cases, of conspiring to commit murder for hire—including a plot to kill a Russian dissident on U.S. soil.
The defendants named by DOJ are:
- Yuri Khrameev, 63, of Russia, a former colonel in Russian intelligence services, also known as “Colonel Yuri.”
- Kirill Khrameev, 27, of Russia, an FSB officer and son of Yuri Khrameev.
- Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, 35, a Cuban national described as an influential figure in the Cuban diaspora in Russia.
- Yaidel Delgado Suarez, 35, of Cuba, also known as “Viking,” described as a prolific recruiter.
- Angel Eduardo Castro, 22, of Venezuela, who helped recruit people inside the United States.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said the defendants “allegedly operated as a global assassination network that reached into the United States, attempting to recruit U.S. citizens and foreigners to carry out killings at the behest of the Kremlin.”
The indictment alleges the network has operated since at least 2024. Recruits in the United States were paid for surveillance and offered as much as $40,000 to “eliminate” or “disappear” a U.S. resident, and $25,000 for a killing in Lithuania or for sabotage such as arson against warehouses or electrical substations. Prosecutors say the targets included Russian dissidents and civilian and military infrastructure in European countries perceived as supporting Ukraine. All five defendants remain at large.
Orders to carry out sabotage such as arson targeting warehouses echoes orders given to the Castro regime’s WASP network that was dismantled by the FBI in 1998.
The DW investigation that preceded the indictment
One day before the charges were unsealed, Deutsche Welle broadcast the investigation Russia’s secret network of “disposable agents” in Europe. The report, by Julett Pineda, Mathias Bölinger, and Anna Chaika, traced a 2024 wave of arson and sabotage in Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Lithuania to Russian services using cheap, deniable recruits—migrants, job-seekers, and Spanish-speaking Latin Americans—rather than formal intelligence officers.
DW identified the recruiter behind the aliases “Adrian” and “Dios” as Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, born in Camagüey, Cuba. For years he has lived in Petrozavodsk, in northern Russia, teaching salsa, bachata, and kizomba at a studio called Made in Cuba. He married a Russian citizen in 2022 and later obtained Russian citizenship. Online, according to DW and partner outlets, he posted job offers in Facebook and Telegram groups for Cubans in Russia and other Latin Americans, offering about $1,500 plus bonuses per operation and seeking people with military or logistics experience. Lithuanian prosecutors have publicly tied the Lithuania plot to Russia’s GRU and placed Romagoza on an international wanted list. At least nine alleged recruits have been arrested; some are already serving prison terms.
DW’s September 16 report on the U.S. charges notes that DOJ went further than the European sabotage cases: Romagoza is also accused of helping obtain images of a dissident’s residence in the United States, material later used for surveillance on American soil. Delgado Suarez, the second Cuban, is accused of trying to recruit people in the United States and of referring to “people in Mexico” as an option for killings. Castro, the Venezuelan, is accused of helping that U.S. recruitment.
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