Yuri Khrameev

Introduction

Yuri Khrameev, 63, is a former colonel in the Russian intelligence services who operated under the alias “Colonel Yuri” and who federal prosecutors allege helped run a global network of recruiters, financiers and operatives that carried out assassinations and sabotage on behalf of the Kremlin. On September 15, 2026, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment in the Southern District of New York charging Khrameev, his 27-year-old son Kirill — an alleged officer in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) — and three other men with conspiracy to finance terrorism. The alleged schemes include a $40,000 murder-for-hire plot against a prominent Russian dissident believed to live in the Washington, D.C., area. All five defendants remain at large. The charges are allegations in an indictment: Khrameev has not been tried, and he is presumed innocent.

Background Information

Beyond court papers and the Justice Department’s announcement, little biographical detail about Khrameev has been published. The indictment describes him as a former colonel in the Russian intelligence services who “has participated in the recruitment of multiple individuals to commit murder against perceived Russian dissidents.” According to CBS News, all five defendants are believed to live in Russia. Prosecutors place Khrameev at the top of what they call the RIS Network — one arm of the Russian Federation’s apparatus for carrying out external attacks, operating since at least 2024 against Russian dissidents and defectors and, most recently, countries perceived as allies of Ukraine. His co-defendants are his son Kirill, 27, an alleged FSB officer; Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, 35, a Cuban national living in Russia described as coordinating attacks for the network; Yaidel Delgado Suarez, 35, the prolific recruiter known as “Viking”; and Angel Eduardo Castro, 22, of Venezuela.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Allegations. The claims in this section are allegations from a federal grand jury indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York and announced by the Department of Justice. The defendants have been charged but not tried, remain at large, and are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; no defense statement from Khrameev was reported in available coverage.

The best-documented alleged scheme involving Khrameev unfolded in Europe in 2025. Prosecutors allege that in late June 2025 his son Kirill met an American at the Estonia-Russia border and paid him $200 to photograph an address in Vilnius, Lithuania, where a Kremlin critic — “Victim-2” — was believed to live. The recruit was then introduced to someone Kirill described as his “boss” and a “colonel,” later identified as Yuri Khrameev, who allegedly offered him $25,000 to “kill him” because the target was “spreading dirt about my country” and “distorting history”, and described how he could be murdered by “throwing a bottle of gasoline” or “sticking a knife” in him. NPR reported that the American declined, fearing he would easily be caught; Khrameev then allegedly offered him a “simpler job” — setting fire to a warehouse or an electrical substation — saying the purpose was to target “all the countries that are helping Ukraine,” that he was offering “serious money for serious work,” and confirming in writing that he was a “colonel of Russian intelligence agencies.”

The second alleged scheme reached the United States in the summer of 2026. Between July and August, prosecutors say co-defendants Suarez and Castro used an encrypted messaging app to recruit a Venezuelan citizen living in Brooklyn to surveil two locations associated with a prominent U.S.-based Russian dissident, paying $1,000 to $1,500 for photographs and videos and then offering $40,000 to “eliminate” or “disappear” the target. When the recruit said he did not want to commit the murder by his own hand, he was asked whether he knew “someone [who] can do the work” — and Suarez mentioned “people in Mexico” who were delayed; Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters the operatives believed the dissident lived in the Washington area. The recruit completed the surveillance but refused to commit the murder, and the conspirators used coded language — the assassination was “construction,” the surveillance “measuring a plot of land.” The indictment further alleges that Durruthy coordinated logistics for attacks in Prague in June 2024 and Lithuania in September 2024 — booking hotels and transferring more than $1,000 in cryptocurrency — and that in November 2025 he obtained imagery of one of the dissident’s dwellings from Khrameev’s network.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The unsealing drew senior-level statements from across the Justice Department and FBI. Attorney General Blanche said, “It is our job to stop America’s adversaries from unleashing violence and terror on American soil,” and FBI Director Kash Patel said the charges revealed an alleged plot to murder a dissident “for daring to speak out against the Russian government.” Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg said the defendants “allegedly operated as part of a global assassination network that reached into the United States,” and FBI officials said the Washington plot was disrupted before anyone was harmed. Fox News called it one of the most serious publicly alleged Russian intelligence operations targeting an individual inside the United States in recent years, and NPR noted it arrives as several European allies have accused Russia of sabotage on their soil. All five men were charged with conspiracy to finance terrorism, carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; Khrameev, Suarez and Castro were additionally charged with conspiracy to commit murder for hire, carrying a maximum of 10 years.

Current Status

All five defendants remain at large and are believed to be living in Russia; no arrest has been reported and no court appearance has taken place. The FBI’s New York Counterintelligence Division led the investigation, with the Washington Field Office and Homeland Security Investigations assisting. The American and Brooklyn recruits who allegedly conducted surveillance were not charged, and the Justice Department stressed that the indictment “is merely an allegation” and that all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Impact on Their Career/Life

For Khrameev, the indictment attaches his “Colonel Yuri” alias, his alleged methods and his own written words — including his self-identification as a “colonel of Russian intelligence agencies” — to a federal terrorism-financing and murder-for-hire case in the United States, transforming him from an unnamed intelligence official into a named defendant sought by the FBI. If convicted on both counts, Khrameev would face up to 20 years on the terrorism-financing charge and 10 years on the murder-for-hire charge — though with him at large in Russia, no trial date exists, and the allegations remain untested charges, nothing more.