U.S. Charges Five in Alleged Russian Plot Against Dissidents, Ukraine Allies
Federal authorities charged five people on September 15, 2026, over what prosecutors describe as a Russian intelligence plot to arrange targeted killings in the United States and in European nations that support Ukraine. All five remain at large. The indictment was unsealed in Manhattan federal court, according to reporting published September 16. The Guardian
The formal charges are conspiring to finance terrorism and to commit murder-for-hire in the United States. Murder-for-hire means paying someone else to carry out a killing. That wording comes from the Justice Department's September 15 press release titled "Members Of Russian Intelligence Services Network Charged With Conspiring To Finance Terrorism And Commit Murder For Hire In The United States." Justice Department
Prosecutors allege the network paid and tried to pay people in the United States and other countries to surveil targets chosen for later killing. Surveillance here means watching and tracking a person's movements. Recruits were also asked to carry out attacks on civilian and military infrastructure in European countries seen as aligned with Ukraine. Authorities allege the conspiracy began in at least 2024 and has involved attacks and murders around the world, including inside the United States.
Investigators described the group as "one arm" of Russia's apparatus for attacks abroad, including murder. In their account, the network earlier focused on Russian dissidents and defectors, people who broke with Moscow, but later turned toward nations seen as allies of Ukraine.
The indictment details an effort in summer 2026 to recruit a U.S.-based person to surveil and kill a prominent Russian dissident believed to live in the United States. The person, identified only as US Resident-1, was sent to two locations linked to the intended victim and given explicit surveillance instructions. The promised pay was $1,000 and $1,500 for that work. US Resident-1 supplied photos and videos to one of the charged men but rejected a $40,000 offer to "eliminate" or "disappear" the target by murder. After that refusal, a member of the network sought to recruit several other people in the United States with offers of substantial money, according to the indictment.
James Barnacle Jr., head of New York's FBI office, said relentless work by the FBI disrupted the plans.
The broader context here is the method prosecutors describe. Surveillance was hired as one job and killing as another, much like hiring different crews for separate steps of the same project. That can lower the bar for recruitment and keep the full plan hidden from each helper. It also leaves trails in payments, tasking messages, and images, which appear central to this prosecution.
Looking at what this means for U.S. and European security practice, the two goals are charged within the same conspiracy. Targeting dissidents abroad and targeting infrastructure in states that aid Kyiv are linked. For counterintelligence services, the agencies that work to block foreign spying and sabotage, that widens the protective task from individuals to facilities and supply chains. It will likely sharpen questions about how U.S. prosecutors share evidence with European partners named as venues for planned operations.
