Russian spies orchestrated $40K murder plot in nation’s capital, US alleges

The U.S. accused Russian intelligence operatives of orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot targeting a Kremlin critic believed to be living in Washington, D.C.

In documents unsealed on Tuesday, federal prosecutors claim the conspiracy was part of a broader global network that recruited people to carry out assassinations and terrorist attacks on behalf of Moscow.

The five men charged in the incitement allegedly worked for Russia's intelligence services, and are accused of being paid and attempting to pay others in the U.S. and abroad to surveil and kill Russian dissidents.

Three of the defendants also face conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire charges.

All five defendants remain at large, according to the Justice Department.

According to prosecutors, the alleged operation reached the nation's capital in late August, when suspected Russian intelligence operatives directed a U.S.-based Venezuelan citizen to secretly film two Washington-area locations tied to a Kremlin critic before allegedly offering him $40,000 to carry out the killing.

The recruit completed the surveillance but refused to commit the murder himself, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors allege the five defendants were members or associates of a Russian intelligence-directed network that financed terrorism and coordinated violent operations across multiple countries.

The recruiter walked the operative through the surveillance step by step, prosecutors say, and allegedly instructed him to put his phone in airplane mode, begin recording before entering the neighborhood, slow as he passed the target's home and delete the messages afterward.

The indictment says the conspirators used coded language, referring to the assassination as "construction" and the surveillance as "measuring a plot of land." When the recruit declined to carry out the murder himself, prosecutors allege the network sought other U.S.-based recruits while noting it also had "people in Mexico" available for the job.

RUSSIA'S SHADOW WAR IS PUTTING EUROPE ON EDGE AS GERMANY CONFRONTS A GROWING THREAT In addition to the alleged murder plot in Washington, the indictment accuses members of the network of supporting attacks on civilian and military infrastructure in Europe and carrying out surveillance of Russian dissidents abroad.

The case marks one of the most serious publicly alleged Russian intelligence operations targeting an individual inside the U.S. in recent years.

The indictment names five alleged members of what prosecutors call the Russian Intelligence Services Network (RIS).