The United States Department of Justice unveiled formal charges on Tuesday against five individuals linked to Russian intelligence services, including two Cuban citizens: Oemis Romagoza Durruthy and Yaidel Delgado Suárez, alias "Viking," both 35 years old and currently fugitives.
The indictment, filed by the Southern District of New York Prosecutor's Office, identifies them as members of a Russian espionage network that has been operating since at least 2024 to assassinate dissidents and sabotage infrastructure in countries allied with Ukraine, including U.S. territory.
Romagoza Durruthy, born in Camagüey and residing in Petrozavodsk (Russia), where he directs the Latin dance academy "Made in Cuba," is described in the file as logistics and attack coordinator for the network.
In June 2024, he organized an attack in Prague and in September of that same year, he coordinated another one in Lithuania, arranging travel and maintaining communication with the operatives. In November 2025, he obtained images of the home of a prominent Russian dissident in the United States, material that was later used by a recruit to conduct surveillance on American soil.
Romagoza is also subject to an international search warrant issued by the Prosecutor's Office of Lithuania in January 2026, for terrorism related to an attempted arson of TVC Solutions facilities in Šiauliai.
The trial for this case began in April and the accused did not plead guilty. He obtained Russian citizenship in 2022 after marrying a citizen of that country, which makes his extradition practically impossible.
Delgado Suárez, for his part, is described in the indictment as a "prolific recruiter" who recruited or attempted to recruit multiple individuals within the United States.
Along with the Venezuelan Ángel Eduardo Castro, 22 years old, he offered a U.S. resident between 1,000 and 1,500 dollars for pre-operational surveillance and 40,000 dollars to "eliminate" or "make disappear" the dissident identified as Victim-1.
When the recruit refused to carry out the crime personally, Suárez asked him if he knew "someone who could do the job" and warned that he had "people in Mexico" willing to carry it out.
The other two defendants are Yuri Khrameev, 63 years old, a former colonel of the Russian intelligence services known as "Colonel Yuri", and his son Kirill Khrameev, 27 years old, an officer of the Federal Security Service (FSB).
Last year, Yuri Khrameev offered a U.S. citizen 25,000 dollars to assassinate a dissident in Lithuania, whom he described as someone who "spread dirt about my country."
When the recruit refused, he proposed alternatives: "set fire to a warehouse" or "throw a gasoline bottle at an electrical substation," with the stated goal of attacking "all the countries that are helping Ukraine."
All the defendants face up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to finance terrorism. Suárez, Castro, and Yuri Khrameev also face up to 10 additional years for conspiracy to commit murder for hire.
The case is set against a documented escalation of Russian covert operations that, following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has increasingly turned to the recruitment of Latin Americans as "disposable agents" to carry out sabotage and assassinations without directly exposing intelligence officers.
The Cuban dance instructor was already being sought by European authorities before Washington brought these charges.
"These defendants allegedly operated as part of a global assassination network that extended to the United States, attempting to recruit American and foreign citizens to commit crimes at the direction of the Kremlin," stated John A. Eisenberg, Deputy Attorney General for National Security.
"These actions represent a serious violation of our sovereignty and a threat to our national security," he concluded.
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