US federal authorities said Tuesday that they thwarted a plot by Russian intelligence services to kill a prominent Russian dissident believed to be living in Washington, D.C.

According to an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court, five people assumed to be living abroad were charged in the plot. The indictment said a network of the Russian intelligence services has paid and tried to pay individuals in the United States and in other countries since 2024 to surveil and then kill Russian dissidents.

Authorities also said the intelligence services of the Russian Federation are plotting to carry out targeted killings in the United States and in European nations supporting Ukraine.

The associates recruited by the network have also been solicited to carry out acts of terrorism against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries, authorities said.