Federal prosecutors have unsealed charges alleging that Russian intelligence operatives orchestrated a murder-for-hire plot targeting a Kremlin critic believed to be residing in Washington, D.C., part of a broader global network designed to carry out assassinations and terrorist attacks on behalf of Moscow. The indictment details how suspected Russian intelligence operatives directed a U.S.-based Venezuelan citizen in late August to surveil two Washington-area locations linked to the critic, subsequently offering him $40,000 to commit the assassination, which the recruit completed the surveillance for but ultimately refused to carry out. This operation, employing coded language where assassination was referred to as “construction” and surveillance as “measuring a plot of land,” involved five defendants, all reportedly at large and affiliated with Russia’s intelligence services, who are accused of paying and attempting to pay individuals in the U.S. and abroad to conduct surveillance and murders of Russian dissidents. The network, identified as the Russian Intelligence Services Network (RIS), allegedly shifted its focus from targeting dissidents to soliciting sabotage attacks against infrastructure in countries supporting Ukraine, including plots targeting electrical substations, warehouses, and transportation hubs, marking one of the most serious publicly alleged Russian intelligence operations targeting an individual within the U.S. in recent years.
Adapted from: Latest Political News on Fox News
